Matthew M. Williams

Matthew M. Williams is an American designer born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1985 and raised in California. After an early period at Maxfield in Los Angeles, he entered fashion through music, performance and image-making, working with Kanye West and Lady Gaga before co-founding the Been Trill collective with Virgil Abloh, Heron Preston and Justin Saunders.

Williams founded Alyx in 2015 with Jennifer Murray and Slam Jam founder Luca Benini. The partnership connected a New York studio to product development in Ferrara, while early womenswear, industrial hardware and collaborations established a path from subcultural clothing into Italian-made luxury. The label became 1017 ALYX 9SM in 2018 and expanded through menswear, footwear, jewellery and technical projects.

Givenchy appointed Williams creative director of women’s and men’s collections on 15 June 2020. His tenure covered ready-to-wear and accessories, not a regular official seasonal haute couture programme; it ended on 31 December 2023. He subsequently reset 1017 ALYX 9SM, introduced the independent MWM project and became Oakley’s creative director for apparel, footwear and accessories in March 2026.

Williams approaches fashion as applied industrial design. Closures, soles, chains and technical fabrics often determine the structure of a product before they become visual signatures. The Rollercoaster buckle associated with 1017 ALYX 9SM exemplifies this method: an existing safety mechanism is retained for its engineering, weight and sound, then placed inside belts, bags, footwear and tailoring.

His work combines tactical, motorcycle, skate and club references with exact manufacturing. Italian production supports controlled leatherwork and tailoring, while partners such as Nike, Vibram, Mackintosh and Moncler extend the practice into performance systems, bonded rainwear and technical down. Recycled materials and digital traceability are treated as product development rather than separate image campaigns.

At Givenchy, Williams applied the same hardware-led attention to the scale and categories of a couture house. The later 1017 ALYX 9SM reset and MWM project move towards quieter American wardrobe forms, natural textiles and direct utility, while Oakley returns that product discipline to performance clothing and accessories.