#30: Matthew Williams Wants Every ALYX Studios Piece to Have Some Emotion or Soul
“You could find out a lot about me by reading the CliffNotes in the brand.”
Matthew Williams is poised to have a huge 2018. Since emerging from the DONDA industrial complex as a founding member of BEEN TRILL, Williams has since gone on to start ALYX Studios. Like his friends and collaborators Heron Preston, Virgil Abloh and Justin Saunders, Williams’s functional pieces have found a cult following among both the fashion glitterati and celebrities alike.
On this week’s episode of HYPEBEAST Radio, Williams takes a deep dive into the business side of ALYX. “In this world today, where everything is spit out of a computer and made by a machine,” Williams observes, “what I want in clothing is to have it feel some kind of emotion or soul. And that only comes by the touch of a human hand.”
ALYX’s offerings range from the functional to the fetishistic. Stainless rings and leather are mainstays. Many of the pieces fetch a pretty penny, both at retail and resale. Williams chalks this value up to the thought put into the garments: “A lot of the brands that HYPEBEAST supports, and guys and girls who like ALYX support: they’re designed clothes. That has value—there’s value in design.” Fast fashion brands like ZARA or H&M, meanwhile, produce “clothing that you buy to keep your body warm. According to Williams, his ALYX pieces, like “old Raf pieces, old visvim pieces,” will stand the test of time.
“If you wanna keep your body warm,” Williams says, “There’re a lot of other things you should spend your money on.”
Check the episode out above, on iTunes, SoundCloud and wherever you find your podcasts.