When we started QUEERGURU over 10 years ago, one of the things we agreed upon as a Team was to keep a very open mind about our content: never censor it: and never ever be shocked.  We’ve done well so far, keeping strictly to first part of our manifesto, BUT now the time has come to break the second part of that and share a story that shocked us. Although confession time, we also had enormous grins on our faces too.

At the same time, we were giving birth (to Queerguru that is), Mexican/American fashion designer Willy Chavarria was launching his eponymous label, and he made it a point then to say that he was going to create collections that are for everyone. “In fashion, we’re used to seeing people make something simple look expensive because they come from privilege.”   Actually, for the next 9 years, he also maintained his ‘day’ job as Senior Vice President of Design at Calvin Klein

One of the things that set Chavarria apart from other designers is the fact he has always knitted politics into fashion, and fought to see beauty where it is rarely recognized. He also loved to mix men’s fashion with race  and sexuality into graceful and elegant apparel, and he was one of the first New York designers to cast only models of color and use his shows for political expression. It bought him great succes with  his collection being stocked at prestigious retailers worldwide, including Barneys, Dover Street Market, Browns, and others.

In 2018, he showed his Spring/Summer collection at the legendary queer Eagle Bar in New York City, juxtaposing religion, lowrider, and leather bar influences.

One of the first things designers aim for when they achieve a bit of commercial success is to get into underwear. In late 2024 Chavarria joined that club and he simply couldnt pass on naming it BIG WILLY.  He produced it in collaboration with Latino Fan Club, a pornography studio with a specialized target market and what may be politely called a D.I.Y. aesthetic. Founded in 1985 by Dana Bryan, a photographer who went by the pseudonym Brian Brennan, the studio, now defunct, offered a visual alternative to the glossy, sanitized iconography then dominating gay pornography.

Ther first collection included tank tops, boxer briefs and jockstraps (along with sweatshirts, shorts and socks) that were manipulated to look sweat-stained, torn and otherwise distressed.  Otherwise dirty,  With amateur styling and models almost certainly cast from the streets of New York, Latino Fan Club existed to celebrate raw sexuality at a time when AIDS had largely sent it underground. To whatever extent possible via an exploitative medium, it exalted gay Latinx sexuality.  At the time Vince Aletti, a former photography critic for The New Yorker and The Village Voice, was quoted as sayung . “It was a relief from all the white boy porn we’d been seeing for years,”.

When we went to research photos on Chavarria’s online store we noticed that many of the ‘dirty’  underwear pieces are sold out.  Maybe its not just a Latino thing after all!