Double-click to edit...
A review of the adidas adiSignature by Willy Chavarria FW26 collection
Willy Chavarria Puts Pride into adidas Originals adiSignature
LE MILE
A pair of baggy trousers can carry a family history, and Willy Chavarria has built a career around giving that history room. Raised in California’s Central Valley, the Mexican-American designer draws on the working-class Chicano communities he grew up among. His clothes give their ways of dressing the scale of an occasion. With adiSignature, his role as creative advisor to adidas Originals brings that sensibility into the everyday sweatshirt.
images courtesy of adidas Originals
Willy Chavarria brings his Chicano perspective to adidas Originals adiSignature, giving everyday sportswear a generous sense of presence and pride. Images courtesy of adidas Originals
developed with Willy Chavarria as Creative Advisor, photography and direction by Brianna Capozzi, styled by Georgia Pendlebury. Images courtesy of adidas Originals
Chavarria has traced his love of wide trousers to Pachuco counterculture in the late 1930s, connecting exaggerated proportions with the right to occupy space. “It is about the space that we occupy,” he told the CFDA in 2023. That belief gives the roomier cuts here an emotional charge. Getting dressed can make somebody feel magnificent, and a generous silhouette can give that feeling a physical presence. When Run-D.M.C. released “My Adidas” in 1986, the possessive captured something the brand’s wearers had already understood. Sportswear could become an expression of who you were and who you stood with. Chavarria brings his own cultural knowledge to that continuing exchange. His involvement recognises the authorship of people who make familiar clothes extraordinary through the way they wear them.
For the first adiSignature collection, Firebird and SST tracksuits join sweats cut with dropped shoulders and fuller legs, using heavyweight 420g brushed-back fleece. The 1980s colour blocking gives that volume an exuberance entirely at home in Chavarria’s world. There is affection in returning to these clothes and giving their proportions such close attention. A shoulder line or waistband can change how somebody holds themselves, bringing a little ceremony to pulling on a sweatshirt.
images courtesy of adidas Originals
images courtesy of adidas Originals
The first adidas Originals adiSignature collection launches on 23 October 2026.
images courtesy of adidas Originals
“I grew up wearing it and still wearing it now,” Chavarria told the CFDA of the baggy trouser, a line that makes his investment in these clothes wonderfully clear. He is passing on a way of dressing he has lived with, bringing the pride he recognised in his own community into the adidas wardrobe. Willy Chavarria is passing on a way of dressing he has lived with, bringing the pride he recognised in his own community into the adidas wardrobe.
all images (c) adidas Originals Press, Images courtesy of adidas Originals
/ adidas Originals adiSignature, developed with Willy Chavarria as Creative Advisor, photography and direction by Brianna Capozzi, styled by Georgia Pendlebury.
