Willy Chavarria wins National Design Award

Fashion designer Willy Chavarria has won the National Design Awards for Fashion Design accolade from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Chavarria, who launched his label in 2015, was honoured for his “sensitive and cinematic approach” to fashion by combining his own upbringing in both agricultural fields and housing projects of the San Joaquín Valley in California and combining it with a high-fashion sensibility.

In addition, Emily Adams Bode received the Emerging Designer award for her luxury menswear brand Bode, which the museum states is reinvigorating American menswear through the art of storytelling and preservation. Bode was also praised for bringing the conversation about sustainability to the forefront of the fashion industry by committing to the preservation of craft and materials and making and repairing clothing for generational use.

The annual awards seek to increase national awareness of the impact of design in everyday life and honour recipients across fashion, design, climate action, architecture, communication, digital, landscape architecture and product design.

Maria Nicanor, director of the museum, said in a statement: “This year’s National Design Award winners reflect the central role that design can play in addressing some of the most urgent needs of our time.

“Attuned to increasing social and planetary challenges, all awardees, regardless of their category, have a regenerative approach to design work that takes into account our shared future.”