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“Fashion and entertainment have been overlapping for so long, it only makes sense that we start to interconnect and join each other’s worlds,” Willy Chavarria tells Variety.
The Mexican American designer puts that philosophy into practice with “El Puente Eterno,” Tequila Don Julio’s new Día de Muertos campaign. Chavarria stepped behind the camera to direct a short film for the spot, inspired by the symbolic pathway of cempasúchil flowers believed to guide loved ones home during the holiday.
The film centers on Don Julio’s latest 70 Añejo Cristalino Artist Edition bottle, designed by Mexican designer Patricio Campillo, and brings together a largely Mexican and Mexican American creative team. The bottle will make its public debut Sept. 13 during Campillo’s Spring 2027 New York Fashion Week show.
For Chavarria, who previously designed two Artist Edition bottles for Don Julio, the project marks another step toward expanding his namesake label beyond clothing. “I think of us evolving into a full creative studio,” he says. “We do partnerships, we do cinematic content, we’ve done music collaborations.” Fashion, he adds, will remain “a huge core part of the brand identity,” even as its boundaries continue to stretch.
That expansion is especially visible this Fashion Week. Chavarria is coming off the launch of his first UGG collaboration, accompanied by the starry “UGG & KISSES” campaign featuring Becky G, Eva Longoria, Danny Trejo and Ivan Cornejo, and was recently nominated for the CFDA’s American Menswear Designer of the Year award. “I’m so grateful. I cannot tell you,” he says of the prestigious nomination. “All of us in this industry are working so hard, and it feels ruthless sometimes.”
For Chavarria, the increasing crossover between industries is one of fashion’s more promising evolutions. “It’s one of those aspects of how fashion is changing that’s very exciting,” he says.
Below, Chavarria talks to Variety about his new Don Julio campaign, championing Campillo , his ambitions in filmmaking — and why Pamela Anderson is next on his dream-dressing list.
You’ve worked with Don Julio on the Artist Edition bottles before, but this is a pretty significant expansion of your role. What made you want to move from designing an object to directing the entire world around the brand?
It was a slower progression because Don Julio and I have been working together for so long. They’ve been really involved in all of our celebratory events and runway shows and key cultural events with our brand. So it was a very natural evolution to take it to the next level.
This time we thought it would be really amazing for us to not just celebrate Willy Chavarria, but to bring in another Mexican creative and highlight a new, up-and-coming fashion brand and give Campillo exposure, while I could really be on the back end in the creative process and create the Don Julio world through a new lens. It was really fun. We all had a great time on this campaign.
How did Campillo get involved, and what did he bring to the project that you couldn’t have achieved alone?
I’ve been a fan of his for a while, and we became friends both when he started showing in New York and when I started spending more time in Mexico. So I’ve really been a champion for him.
I thought it would be amazing for Don Julio and me to partner on this and bring him into the bottle design and let him tell the story of Día de los Muertos, which is so incredibly tied to Don Julio and this tequila and this season, from the perspective of another Mexican designer. We actually had photos of his family in the ofrenda in the campaign, so it was really a nice personal thing for him. He really brought the story to life of what Día de los Muertos is: honoring the past and doing it with joy. He was so perfect to articulate that.
Día de los Muertos is so visually recognizable that some parts of it can be cliché. Are there certain images or tropes you consciously wanted to avoid?
That is a great question because we were very conscious of that. Our first thought was that we really wanted to highlight the modern, cool aspects of Don Julio and not be cliché, and not deliver what is already top of mind when people think of Día de los Muertos.
We wanted to be cool and minimal and chic and still celebratory. So we worked through that together as we were developing the concept and the storyboards and the visuals, and everyone involved was very much on the same page with delivering something new.
It was really fun because everybody — all of the talent that worked on this campaign, for the most part, especially on set — was Mexican. So we had Enrique doing the photography, Carlos Jaramillo doing the direction, the set designer was Mexican. Everybody knew that we wanted to take a new perspective, and it was very instinctive creatively how to avoid the more traditional, cliché aspects of the holiday.
Earlier this year, you talked about wanting to merge music and fashion more aggressively, and you debuted your short film “Eterno.” Is filmmaking becoming a permanent part of the company rather than something you just do around collections?
Yeah, I love it. I love any creative process. But what’s so rewarding about cinema and music is you really tap into more people than you do with simply a product. So even though with Don Julio, we’re actually selling the luxury tequila itself, we’re really sharing the story of Don Julio and the story of Día de los Muertos and the joy that exists within that holiday and celebration. So it’s touching everybody who sees it, not just the end consumer.
As a cinema fan, is there any specific filmmaker who inspires you that you’d love to work with at some point?
Oh my God. I’ve got so many, but Wong Kar-wai is one of my top.
Do you still think of fashion as the center of what you do, or is Willy Chavarria becoming something closer to a full creative studio in terms of the brand? Where do you see it going?
I think of us evolving into a full creative studio, which, in many ways, we are. We do partnerships, we do cinematic content, we’ve done music collaborations. So I absolutely see that part of the business growing.
But I do believe that the visual foundation of the business will always exist in fashion. What percentage of the business fashion is might vary over time, but fashion will always be a huge core part of the brand identity.
It seems like a lot of brands are interested in merging these different industries right now.
I agree. It makes sense because they’ve been overlapping for so long that it only makes sense that we start to interconnect and join each other’s worlds and have more impact and do more creative things. I love it. It’s one of those aspects of how fashion is changing that’s very exciting.
Going into Fashion Week, you were nominated for the CFDA American Menswear Designer of the Year. What did that moment mean for you?
Oh gosh, it means so much to me and my team because it’s encouragement. We’re all working so hard. All of us in this industry are working so hard, and it feels ruthless sometimes. But the CFDA Award is one of those things that makes us stop and pause and appreciate. Just the nomination — being next to Ralph Lauren and Todd Snyder and Thom Browne — it’s such a great honor. It really is, just to be in that sentence.
What shows are you looking forward to this fashion week?
I’m excited for Zaldy. I love Zaldy. I think he’s really, really genius. He’s done so much costume, and he does Cirque du Soleil. He’s really amazing. He’s showing menswear. You should check it out. It’s his second show.
And Diotima — I always like to see what she’s doing. Her work is so soulful, and she’s such a wonderful person. You really just feel it in her work. So that one is always a favorite of mine too.
Who do you think is the best-dressed celebrity?
That’s a tough one. Who do you think is the best dressed?
I think Colman Domingo is amazing. He always looks really great. He always just comes to mind for some reason. And then, obviously, Zendaya. Maybe my answers are just not that—
Those are obvious.
I know those are obvious. I’m trying to think..
Also, Zendaya could wear, like, a dirty [trash bag] and still look amazing..
She could but she doesn’t, which I actually kind of respect.
Yeah. She turns it out, and she does it really, really well. And props to Law Roach there. You’ve got to give him props.
I really, really like when people look like they don’t put a lot of effort into what they’re wearing and just have great style. I love that. I love when people look a little disheveled. When people are too done up for the red carpet, I don’t really get a lot out of it.
I mean, okay: Pam Anderson. Incredible. Incredible. Monumental. I think she’s terrific.
Is there a celebrity you dream of working with at some point that you haven’t yet?
Pam Anderson. Chloë Sevigny. Oddly, Jake Gyllenhaal. I think it’s just because I really like his acting, and I’ve followed him over the years. I think he’s really great. I don’t know — who haven’t I already dressed?
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