Karla Martinez de Salas and Willy Chavarria Are Honored at the El Museo del Barrio’s Spring Benefit

Host an event in Times Square in the middle of a late-spring freeze, and you’ll find out who your real friends are. Do it two nights in a row, and you’re just asking for the impossible—that is, unless you’re the El Museo del Barrio.

It all began on Monday night. The museum, the nation’s oldest Latinx cultural institution, hosted a dinner to honor fashion designer Willy Chavarria and Vogue Mexico & Latin America’s Karla Martinez de Salas. Call the dinner a pre-party for what could come the following night: a full-on fiesta featuring a live performance by Dominican-Italian singer-songwriter Yendry and DJ Christian Martir.

Arriving on the ninth floor of the Times Square Edition Hotel, guests traded the neon lights of the neighborhood for the lush atmosphere of the hotel’s Garden West restaurant. Conversation was largely had in Spanish, and fashion-wise, the crowd represented. Among those in attendance were Anna Wintour, Lauren Santo Domingo, Wes Gordon, Jason Wu, Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Fabiola Beracasa, and Jonathan Cohen. It was the best mix of designers and muses.

Margaritas and light bites circulated the room before Maria Eugenia Maury, chair of the board at El Museo del Barrio, took to the podium to remind the guests why they had all gathered.

Each year, El Museo’s Spring Benefit supports the Upper East Side museum’s mission to increase awareness around Latinx and Latin American art and culture. Two of those culture-makers were the night’s honorees. Willy Chavarria (whom The New York Times recently described as ”the most highly placed Latino currently at work on the creative end of the American fashion industry”) has long been a fixture of the style world, both through his work with the likes of Ralph Lauren and Yeezy and through his own eponymous label. (Chavarria is also the senior vice president of design at Calvin Klein.) Dressed in all black, the designer thanked the museum in his remarks to the room.

So too did Karla Martinez de Salas, the head of editorial content for Vogue Mexico & Latin

America; Martinez de Salas first joined the Vogue family in 2002. In a floral Jonathan Cohen dress, she spoke of the unique position her day job puts her in, giving her the privilege to promote and encourage all things creative and Latinx. Both individuals gave the group a lot to celebrate—Yendry’s spirited live set was just the cherry on top.