​Welcome to Willy Chavarria and Tequila Don Julio's América

Willy! How are you?

I’m great. I'm exhausted, and I'm invigorated, and I'm electric, and I'm dead.

That’s why we do this right? It gives us life but also takes everything out of us.

It takes a lot. I put a lot into it, and it's majorly emotional for me. I get to this point every season, and I say, “I don't know if I'm gonna do this again.” And then before I know it, I'm doing it all over.

Going through that seems important because you’re coming back with so much more intention.

These shows are very important for me because my goal is to have a cultural impact, so I take it very seriously. I don't want to get anything wrong. But this is the most exciting time: fitting the looks on people and putting the story together.

Tell me about your inspiration for this season.

The title of the show is América (that is how I grew up hearing the pronunciation of the country name), so it's America through the voice of an immigrant. I want to tell the story of this country through the voice of the immigrants and the people who have built the country. The people are the backbone, and I just want to really celebrate the power of the people.

My favorite part of the show is very much inspired by farm workers and the United Farm Workers movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I would like people to be a little bit aware of United Farm Workers and even go to the website and see what they're all about: protecting the rights of our farm workers, who are mostly Mexican American. They work with the ACLU to fight against global warming, because farm workers are working in like 113 degree heat all day, and also making sure that their hours are fair and all of those things.

Before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta led that farm workers movement during the Civil Rights era, the conditions were much worse than they are now. There were no bathrooms, and the hours were really long, and the pay was unbearably low. That movement is something that really inspires me, along with the Civil Rights Movement, and it just reminds me of the power that we do have when we come together as a people to make change. That's a very, very strong part of the story.

So how did Don Julio come into play in this story?

We've been working together on projects for about a year now, and it's just been a really good match, because their philosophy is very much about raising the level of pride of the agave workers who make the tequila and make this spirit something really elegant, taking it from just doing tequila shots at a bar to something very classy in a champagne flute, as we will be doing at the show.

And you designed your own bottle! Was that a fun process?

When they asked me to do a bottle, I was like, “What a cool thing. What an honor.” Dia de los Muertos is such an important, relevant, cultural holiday where we honor the dead. I've always found it such a cool way to celebrate the dead in a way that's joyful and still respectful. I love that holiday, and I loved being able to do a bottle that people are gonna have fun with.

The collaboration pieces really fit into the collection seamlessly, too.

When we talked about doing something apparel related, I was already working on a linen story for the collection, so I thought that felt the most like Don Julio. Don Julio himself was so prideful about his work and having premium quality tequilas and being respectful of the farm workers, actually just like my own grandfather. He would take care of the other farm workers and make sure that they were very well-protected, and they had pay. I think Don Julio was very much the same: starting out small and being super dedicated to good quality and decency.

Available now.