The world is burning, but Paris Fashion Week is business as usual, as countless designers turn a blind eye to current affairs to offer up collections focused on escapism and fantasy. Fashion is inherently political and what you choose to put on your body can convey all sorts of messages about who you are, but making overt political statements comes with the fear of ostracising customers with opposing views and sending sales figures plummeting, so most are choosing not to.

But Willy Chavarria is not most designers, and he had plenty to say at his SS26 show this afternoon (July 27). His second season presenting in the French capital, after he left New York for the PFW schedule, saw the Mexican-American designer open his show with a poignant tribute to the immigrants and US citizens alike who are currently being rounded up, detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and, in the worst case scenario, deported to prisons in places like El Salvador.

As the lights went up on the catwalk, out walked a succession of Willy’s regular cast members and faces found when he put out an open call, all dressed in baggy white tees and loose shorts. The group slowly lined up, one in front of the other, dropped to their knees, and clasped their hands behind their backs, in the same formation and pose as we have seen plastered across news outlets since Trump was reelected to office and began his crackdown on immigrants. 

Each of the models had a shaved head, in reference to the prisoners in El Salvador and beyond having to strip naked and have their heads shorn on arrival at the detention centres. It was powerful and moving and emotional, and highlighted just how special a designer Chavarria is. But, as he has said countless times in interviews, including our own from last year, if he couldn’t be political on the runway, he wouldn’t want to bother with fashion, anyway.

As the boys stood up and filed away, out came the fashions, and it felt like Chavarria had really stepped it up this season. The tailoring was tighter and razor-sharp, with his signature boxy suiting sent out in bold new colourways spanning highlighter pink, punchy pillarbox red, and zingy mustard, while his womenswear, which he’d only really dabbled in until recently, felt more confident and well-rounded – Paloma Elsesser and more stepped out in structured satin wiggle dresses and little jacket and skirt sets with nipped waists. 

The former Ralph Lauren designer also riffed on American classics like those the house made its name on, with preppy sweaters and shorts pumped up to Willy-style proportions, and his trademark trackies, plastered up and down the legs and arms and across the chest with his logo, as well as more adidas pieces, were all in the mix, too. The whole thing was rounded off by a succession of voluminous evening gowns in shades of bold yellow, fuschia, and sky blue: could Willy Couture be coming at some point soon? If the rumours that swirled around fashion week were true, and he really is in the running to take over at Fendi, then who knows? I for one would love to see it.

Scroll through the gallery above for backstage images from the show