Exclusive: Matthew M. Williams Speaks on His Next Chapter

This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the global fashion week circuit. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Two weeks ago, Givenchy announced that Matthew M. Williams was stepping down as creative director after three-ish years. His departure had been rumored for some time, but I for one was surprised—or at least disappointed—by the news. Creatively, he had just hit his stride at the Audrey Hepburn-linked house, which he overhauled and re-introduced to a generation that bumps to “Die Lit” rather than “Moon River.” As his predecessor Clare Waight Keller discovered, three years is not a ton of time to turn around a battleship as big as Givenchy. But 2023 was the breakthrough Williams needed. His men’s collections had a real sense of clarity thanks to a compelling blend of couture craftsmanship and Soundcloud styling, and I was hopeful that Williams would keep building his vision from there.

But it seems Williams had already been planning on building that vision elsewhere. The news of his departure broke just weeks after Williams confirmed that he had secured an investment deal for his own brand, 1017 Alyx 9SM, with Hong Kong-based luxury tycoon Adrian Cheng.

Though I was rooting for Williams at Givenchy, it was hard to deny that Alyx might have had more energy behind it. A few months ago, I happened to run into Williams at Dimes Deli in New York’s Chinatown. He was wearing Alyx and in town to celebrate the brand’s ultra-buzzy collaboration with Audemars Piguet. Outside the café, two twenty-somethings in town from Utah stopped and asked for a selfie. I didn’t hear them mention Givenchy, but they were dressed in techno-workwear that looked directly downstream from what Williams has been doing at his Milan-based brand since 2015. His most recent Alyx collections were also excellent, technically accomplished (Williams is a true nerd for fabrics and seams and hardware) and tapped into real bands of youth style.

Though the terms of his deal with Cheng were not disclosed, the partnership could be a game-changer for Alyx. Cheng—a young billionaire property developer and entrepreneur with a taste for art and fashion—might not have widespread name recognition, but he’s a heavy hitter. I saw just how heavy firsthand earlier a few weeks ago in Hong Kong, where Louis Vuitton partnered with Cheng to pull off its epic pre-fall men’s show. The runway abutted his K11 mall, a massive, modern edifice of culture and commerce, and Cheng co-hosted the afterparty at an adjacent hotel he owns. He chatted with Pharrell in the VIP section all night.

On Wednesday afternoon, Williams described his move as a “restart, in a way.” A new era. For one, he’s moving Alyx to Paris. Williams joined the Zoom call from a table set for lunch, a leafy Parisian rooftop view stretching behind him. It was his lunch break, and the designer turned off his camera about halfway through so he could eat his meal. Williams has always expressed a curious mix of intensity and humility. He wears dark fashion and quotes Playboi Carti, but is also a mild-mannered dad. The former Lady Gaga collaborator’s obsessive design mind launched him to the top of the fashion establishment, but he seems genuinely allergic to boastfulness. In Paris, his lunch is served to him on fancy tableware, but he’s thinking about Dimes. In fact, he gets off our Zoom to call the restaurant’s owners “just to catch up.” “I miss them,” he says. But first, we discuss his departure from Givenchy and the new beginning of Alyx, as well as Been Trill, Berghain, and Bhutan.

GQ: You're in this moment of transition right now. How are you feeling? Are you excited? Trepidatious?

Matthew M. Williams: I feel great, and super excited to have Alyx move to Paris. It’s been my home for the past three years. It's such an amazing city and there's so much inspiration here, and also just great people to work with. Building the next phase of Alyx after almost 10 years is really exciting. I've always been very motivated and given lots of energy into Alyx, but it is nice to have a restart, in a way. Sometimes when you're doing something for so long in the same system, there's not an opportunity to kind of reset. And it feels really great to be given that, to kind of take all the learnings from the past decade, and then begin.

Can you tell me a little bit about your decision to step down from Givenchy?

I mean, Alyx is just going to take a lot of time and focus to push into the next chapter, so I want to be committed to Alyx and give it everything that it needs. It’s going to take a lot of energy and love and care and support, which I've always given.

But did you find it harder in the last three years to really give Alyx the focus and attention you wanted?

No, no. It had a lot of my attention, and I was traveling to Milan a lot and I love the work that we put out over the past few years. But the kind of support that's being given also has to be met with new energy, new challenges, et cetera, et cetera.

Tell me more about this “restart” and why you’re moving the Alyx studio to Paris.

Paris has become my home for the past three and a half years and I love living here. My CEO lives in London. My kids live in London. It's just a nice proximity for everyone.

What else is going to change? What’s new about how you’re approaching or thinking about Alyx?

Being able to do retail now is really exciting. You’ve come to the showrooms and our popups that we've done over the years, so you had moments where you got to actually feel Alyx in a space with the full collection, but that was rarely felt at a wholesale level. When you would go into an account that we sold with, it would be kind of piecemealed together. So I'm really excited for everyone to experience Alyx in a full space. And to be able to focus more on some of the categories that I've always wanted to expand on, accessories, jewelry, shoes—being able to really show an offering in those categories is really exciting to me. And even launch to other zones. We've done stuff in music this year. I want Alyx to continue to be a brand that plays in lots of different spaces of culture, and continue to be used as a platform for the community that I love and support and co-create projects with.

Right, you could say that in recent years Alyx has matured into a more full lifestyle brand. And I suppose retail is the final piece of that puzzle. How did the partnership with Adrian come together, and what is your relationship like?

We originally met through [Dazed Media co-founder] Jefferson Hack in 2017 or 2018. Adrian was visiting Milan and we met for dinner, and then we continued to become friends over the years. Adrian's really involved in the arts and a big supporter of artists and cultural projects, and I always really admired that about him. And I think he has incredible taste, so we would hang out a lot and just talk about things that we were inspired by. And so he was visiting Paris and just came over to my house to catch up, and I mentioned that I was speaking to different partners for Alyx, and he was like, Oh, that could be cool to do together, send me over the info. And then slowly the conversation grew into being what it is today. But it began with friendship and mutual admiration for each other. So far there's been lots of inspiring conversations happening.

What learnings or ideas are you going to be bringing to Alyx from Givenchy? I assume the experience has been informative.

I mean, yeah, it's been a massive experience, from managing teams at that scale, working with traditional marketing, outdoor advertising, campaigns for magazines. And especially retail—that was just something I had never worked in prior to Givenchy, and so all of that experience has been huge. I mean, the level of accessories that I was making there, the couture with womenswear, the shoes, jewelry, all of that, that skillset was so ramped up. The ability to create with that engine for so many years, I learned so much.

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot—and it's not super directly related to this transition, although maybe it kind of is—is Been Trill. You, Virgil Abloh, and Heron Preston really defined an era of American fashion on the global stage. In your mind, how did the experience of being in Been Trill shape what you do and how you got to this moment?

I don't really see it as a part of my stepping stones in my fashion career. It was really something fun I was doing with my friends, and it was about music and having people of similar interests come together in a shared space, in a shared environment. It wasn't about DJing for money or even social media or whatever it was. We just wanted to hear music that we wanted to hear when we were going out. It was very pure, and that's what I really love about it. I went to Berghain a few weeks ago and it was so nice to be there with nobody having their phone out, everyone dancing. It's so rare to find a place where people are actually all dancing and present together these days. Everyone's so on their phone. And so if anything, I think what was so great about Been Trill was it was a party that everyone was welcome to. It was playing music that was really just living on the internet for the most part and playing it in the physical world, and it was really using Been Trill as a platform to do collaborations with all the brands and people that we loved from a fashion perspective. None of us really designed anything. But it was something that wasn't so precious. It was really free. All ideas were welcome.

Did that party at Berghain remind you of Been Trill parties?

No, it didn't. But I had the most fun I've had in many, many years at Berghain, and that was because everyone was present dancing. They were all there for the music. It was pure and very special. It was something super rare. I don't know where else in the world you can go and do that anymore.

Are you doing an Alyx show in January? What's the immediate plan?

No, I don't know when our next show's going to be.

Why is that?

There's just a natural period when you're doing a business transition like this and moving things to another country, so it just makes sense for us to do it at another date.

But going forward you’ll be showing in Paris?

Yeah.

What do the next couple of weeks have in store for you? How are you finishing up the year?

I'm going to Hong Kong on Sunday to do a pop-up for our Nike Air Force One collaboration at K11 and spend time with Adrian, and then from there I’m going to go to Bhutan.

What's up in Bhutan?

I'm going to find out. I’ll let you know.

See all of our newsletters, including Show Notes, here.

Originally Appeared on GQ