LVMH-owned luxury fashion house of Givenchy has appointed designer Matthew M Williams, the 34-year-old founder of luxury streetwear-inspired label 1017 ALYX 9SM, as its new art director. Williams will succeed Clare Waight Keller after her exit in April, and will present his first collection in Paris this October.
The appointment of Williams will further push Givenchy in a streetwear direction, though he joins the luxury couture house during a period of turbulence for the fashion industry. Williams will join the label during a moment of profound societal change, during which consumers are questioning how all the institutions they interact with are actively fighting discrimination. He will likely be expected to deliver the types of collections that drive customers to queue up to shop, but on a much larger scale than he has operated before.
Givenchy, a couture house with a rich history, has major expectations for future growth. Its parent company LVMH hopes the label to grow like Dior with revenue exceeding €2 billion ($2.14 billion).
