The American Apparel & Footwear Association hosted its 2023 American Image Awards Tuesday night at Latest York’s Plaza Hotel, honoring among the fashion industry’s key leaders and advocates.

Menswear designer Willy Chavarria received his latest accolade on the awards and was honored with the designer of the yr award. Chavarria was honored alongside Latest Balance Athletics Inc., which received the corporate of the yr award; Harlem’s Fashion Row, which received the Fashion Maverick award; the World Trade Organization’s director general Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who received the inaugural Global Vanguard award; and William McDonough, who received the eco-steward of the yr award.

“It says a lot about all of us today and a lot about our industry and the way we’ve grown to acknowledge someone like me,” Chavarria said during his acceptance speech. “Someone with a mission like mine and someone who really cares concerning the impacts we are able to have on society with a renewed take a look at human dignity, which is what the muse of my brand actually is. It is gorgeous, I’d should say, but the muse is admittedly about lifting people up and that is admittedly why I began doing this.” 

He went on to clarify the deeper purpose of his namesake fashion label, stating: “I discovered my place in fashion after some years of working inside the industry, developing my skills and learning about this industry, but, it wasn’t until later in life that I spotted my purpose, and my purpose was to create change — to make use of what we do to make people think and feel higher about ourselves.” 

Prior to the evening’s programming, Chavarria reflected on his fall 2023 ready-to-wear show from February, stating the couture-heavy collection is indicating a recent direction for his label. He also stated that his fall collection, which he can be selling at Bergdorf Goodman, plus his spring 2023 rtw collection have helped speed up his made-to-order business. 

“With the expansion going up in my brand, so has my skill grown and my passion and my desire to make use of probably the most beautiful fabrics and probably the most beautiful silhouettes and really showing my work at the very best level of fashion I can,” he said. “[The spring] show really showed my skill to more people on a much larger scale, so since that, recognition has began to speed up. It’s form of given me more ambition to do higher and higher — to push my very own boundaries.”