Amid hyperinflation in luxury, Matthew M. Williams is marching in the opposite direction as he retools 1017 Alyx 9SM for its next chapter under new ownership. (Hong Kong entrepreneur Adrian Cheng bought a majority stake late last year.)
While fastidious about details, fit and fabric quality as he test drives new suppliers, he’s managed to trim some prices by half or more in an effort to make his brand more accessible to his fans and supporters.
“Our hoodies were 600 [euros] and now they’re 250,” he enthused, also fishing from a rack a long, handsome brown leather coat that will carry a tag around 900 euros. (It might have gone for three grand in the recent past.)
He presented the collection at his airy Paris apartment, which doubles as a studio for his vast network of musician friends, and is calling it pre-spring since it fits on two racks: elaborations on formal and casual outerwear archetypes, cotton shirts, and some of the coolest jeans and pants seen so far this Paris season.
“The brand is really a projection of my style and how I want to dress,” Williams said. “Wardrobing is my way.”
Most of the looks were oversize or “scaled up,” had a military undercurrent, and came in cotton, ripstop and leather — all with a slightly lived-in look. Williams looks for “soul” in his finished garments, even if they still emit the minimal, industrial cool that’s encapsulated in his roller-coaster buckle, an enduring brand emblem.
Indeed, many of his pre-spring items were devised because Williams simply can’t find them on the market — and that’s saying something because the man scours every corner of Tokyo in search of the perfect T-shirt or a Fuji automatic medium-format camera, which was used to shoot the look book.
He was wearing a white T-shirt from his Givenchy days that you immediately envied for its neat, tailored fit, especially how the crewneck sat high, but not too high — perfect to wear under a tailored jacket. He shrugged one on and he looked great.