It’s rare for a designer of a certain level of notability to hang out at a sales showroom. They’ll give private appointments to the press, sure, but the sales portion of the proceedings? That’s for the sales teams. But not Matthew M. Williams. The former designer of Givenchy and Alyx, and collaborator of Lady Gaga’s Haus of Gaga was posted up at a showroom in the 10th arrondissement in Paris last week.
Williams had been quiet on the fashion front since dropping a new version of Alyx last year. Then on June 1, he announced on Instagram that he’d be launching a namesake collection. There was no big PR agency involved this time around, no polite back and forth emails between editors and publicists and assistants to set up an appointment to go over the new line. It was just Williams, reachable via What’s App with the time and predisposition to show what he’d been cooking up.
The last time Vogue checked in with Williams was a year ago in his apartment in Paris. He was showing the new Alyx, revamped following an investment deal from Hong Kong-based luxury tycoon Adrian Cheng. Williams spoke of simmering down the label to its essential pieces, of making it more accessible to the people “who care”—meaning those true fashion and Williams fanatics who have supported his work out of the gate. He spoke of working with only the best suppliers he’d encountered through his time at Givenchy and the old Alyx, and of making the pieces he wants to wear: great Japanese denim, a really good t-shirt.
This time around, the conversation revolved around the same key themes with one key difference: Williams is running the show in its entirety. MMW is entirely self-funded by Williams. The lookbook images here feature him and his partner, gallery director Giorgia von Albertini. Williams does not refer to MMW as a brand or label, rather a “clothing project.” Not in a pretentious way, though it may sound like that at first, but in the sense that Williams seems to be on the other side of the brand experiment.
“After doing it the other way,” he said, in reference to the grandness of his role at Givenchy or the breakneck speed of a project like Alyx, “I want to do this in a way in which I can preserve my lifestyle.” He wants to be available when his kids call, he said, and have the time to work on creative projects as they come up. MMW is launching with no direct to consumer channel, just wholesale with retail partners that “we know will value the product and the idea behind it.” He’ll make two collections a year; the goal is for it to be manageable and scalable.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Williams
Courtesy of Matthew M. Williams
The best thing in this first drop is Williams’s new sneaker style. It’s slim and can easily read like a dressier shoe when paired with slacks. Also great: a pair of hefty—but very light—black boots and all the denim. “I want to provide value,” Williams said.
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