The collection is called Vatísimo. It dropped on 26 March 2026. Willy Chavarria designed it for Zara, and he filled it with the world he grew up in.
Vatísimo is the superlative of vato, a Chicano term for kinship, loyalty, chosen family. Chavarria, son of a Mexican immigrant father and an Irish mother, raised in Fresno, California, has carried this language his entire life. The fashion industry has borrowed freely from Chicano aesthetics for decades. Chavarria is the first to bring them to Zara from the inside.
The clothes
Broad-shouldered blazers with padded shoulders cut to a deliberately macho proportion. Wide-leg trousers in heavy wool blends. Three-quarter length chinos that hold their formal spine while moving with ease. Against these, the womenswear is fluid: a lace camisole dress in salmon pink, a silk paisley bandana, slips in fabrics that catch light at different angles.
The fabrication surprises at this price point. Italian fabrics sit alongside cupro, a semi-synthetic with a silky hand and better environmental credentials than conventional viscose. Premium leather appears in outerwear and accessories. Short-sleeved shirts arrive with raw-edge finishing. Pencil skirts in russet leather and leather clogs round out a wardrobe that holds together across its tonal range, from graphic tees and hoodies to quiet tailored separates.
Prices run from under fifty dollars for the graphic pieces to two hundred and fifty for leather. A pop-up at 73 Spring Street in SoHo supplements a global rollout.
Vatísimo is rooted in dignity. It is about visibility. It is about sharing the distinct.
Elena VossThe campaign
Glen Luchford shot the campaign. Christy Turlington and Alberto Guerra star in a visual world pulled from 1980s American prime-time drama and the telenovelas Chavarria watched as a child. Dallas, Dynasty, their Mexican equivalents. Poolside confrontation, sharp eyewear, dresses that announce intentions from across a marble lobby. Chavarria finds conviction in that tradition: clothes should carry feeling, and drama is a form of emotional intelligence.
Turlington appears warm, present, implicated in a story unfolding around her. Guerra brings masculine energy that complements rather than dominates. The photographs feel cinematic in their attention to the relationships between people.
Vatísimo campaign, Spring 2026. Glen Luchford / Wallpaper*
Zara’s shift
The Galliano collaboration positioned Zara as a platform for genuine fashion ideas. The Stefano Pilati partnership offered disciplined minimalism. With Chavarria, the retailer gives significant reach to a designer whose work is explicitly political, whose subject is identity and visibility, and whose aesthetic belongs to the community that produced it.
Chicano aesthetics have shaped American style for decades, from workwear to luxury menswear to streetwear, with attribution that has been inconsistent at best. Vatísimo complicates the usual transaction. A designer writing his own story, in his own language, at a scale that demands attention.