What made you want to do underwear?
I’ve always had an interest in underwear because that’s the most intimate garment, the one that’s closest to your skin and the one that you have the most intimate relationship with. It’s got to be comfortable and it’s got to make you feel excellent. Whether you’re thinking about it or not, you have to be in the best fit underwear for you at all times. I started my whole fashion career years ago working with Joe Boxer out of San Francisco.
I love Nik Graham (founder of Joe Boxer). He’s a character.
Yeah, he’s amazing. He’s so fun. I actually started in the stockroom there, but then later started designing and really just kind of fell in love with it. It’s resurfaced throughout my career, here and there, doing different projects working at Calvin, and I launched an underwear business for American Eagle Outfitters when I was there. It’s always been something that’s kind of been close to me. And then with doing fashion, it just seemed like the right time to launch the underwear.
I think you’re right.
We’re launching the first capsule, which is Dirty Willy Underwear, and that’s going to have holes in it and cum stains.
Urine, sweat.
And piss and urine stains and sweat erosion, things like that. It’s under the Willy Chavarria label. And the Dirty Willy capsule is just this division, which is part of the luxury division of the underwear. In November, we’re releasing a more expansive underwear collection that isn’t at luxury price point.
What’s a luxury price point for a pair of underwear, roughly?
The brief is $300, and the boxer brief is 350.
That’s luxury. And what will the more accessible price be?
Starting out, they’ll be in the $90 price point, but eventually as the business grows, the plan is to offer a very accessible price point, which is closer to $10 a pair.
Wow. Now, what do you think makes underwear so sexy?
It’s relative to whoever’s wearing it and whatever the vibe is. I’ve always found old dirty underwear to be very sexy. And I love the way that… I’m trying to figure out the best way to say this… I just love the way that it takes on the character of the wearer with such distinct… What’s another word for intimacy? Closeness. But I think there are so many different types of sensual underwear, and they all can be interpreted as being really cheesy in some ways in the right setting, or they could be extremely sexy. So, it really depends on who is wearing them and how they’re wearing them and the feeling that they get when they’re being worn.
Your casting is always very unique and very fabulously done. Who does your casting, by the way? Or who did the casting for this campaign?
This campaign, I worked with Brent Chua, who works with me on all my casting, so he’s my in-house casting director.
I love it.
But ultimately, I do the casting for everything.
Of course. If you were doing a Marky Mark for Calvin Klein moment, are there people who would be your dream underwear spokesmodels?
I like Pedro Pascal a lot. I think he’s amazing. I like Willem Dafoe. And then I like just regular guys from the street. For me, it’s always been a little bit more interesting to have real people as part of the stories and mix some celebrities in there as needed. But I really like the real people aspects.
In this campaign, are they real people?
Yeah, yeah, they’re real people. One is a boxer, one is a construction worker, one is a drug dealer.
We won’t say which is which.
I won’t say who’s who, you have to guess.
Where will the underwear be available?
It’ll be available at willychavarria.com
