ALYX

Matthew Williams talks with LUISAVIAROMA from Ferrara, Italy, where he is currently producing his brand, ALYX. Get to know the designer from California, who went from being a stylist to Lady Gaga and Kayne West to having one of the hottest brands of the moment.

You initially made a name for yourself working with celebrities like Lady Gaga and Kayne West… How did you break into that world?
I was making clothing before I met them…. I was working for different brands. Their stylist hired me to make clothes for them to wear on stage. After working with them and getting to know them, they asked me to do art direction, video shoots, stuff for their live tour. Then I became an overall creative director.

What was it like working in music and fashion in those years as Instagram and a lot of things weren’t around yet?
Back them, fashion houses didn’t really give clothing freely to musicians. Chanel would give something to Madonna, but it wasn’t that common. There were fashion stylists in the fashion capitals like Milan and New York, and celebrity and music stylists in L.A. They did not cross paths and there was no communication. There were some rare cases, but it was tough to do real work without travel. At the beginning working for Gaga, people would not lend her clothing.  It was a big barrier until we started working with Nicola Formichetti.  He was our gateway into the fashion system and introduced us to magazines, fashion photographers.  Nicola was brave enough to work with both of us. I didn’t know anyone in the fashion community, I grew up in California. We did a lot of great things, and people were like oh wow, what a great team… so we started doing stuff. It wasn’t easy at the beginning, as we had to make everything ourselves, including most of the most iconic things Gaga wore.

After those experiences, you started your own label. How did that come about?
Before I was working with celebrities, I was working in New York and L.A. with other brands. It had always been my dream to have my own label; I got back to that original goal. I took everything I had learned in the past ten years, and I applied it to my own brand. I had matured, and had a belief system of what I wanted.

Do you have a muse or an inspiration behind the brand?
My muse is my wife. The inspiration is a constant evolution. We are always working on a similar aesthetic that we build on season to season. Small themes might change, but we build off the same silhouettes and develop fabrics with similar yarns. Fabrics take a lot of time! It takes a long time in general to make something good. We want to deliver something we are proud of and something the customer can enjoy.

Yes, clothes that last! Alyx is made in Italy, why did you decide to produce there?
It’s a dream to make clothes in Italy. The possibilities are limitless, they have the best artisans in the world. I came here because it’s the only place I feel I can make the clothes I want to make left in the world. So many places are closing down, it’s one of the last places left.

And you are living in Italy? Do you like it?
I really enjoy living here, it reminds me of California a lot! It has wine country, valleys, mountains, islands, you can get a bunch of microclimates. I also love the sense of family that Italy has, it has a beautiful culture, the quality of life is amazing, the food is delicious, I couldn’t be happier. It’s a great adventure for me and my family.

Taking it back to fashion, what do you think about the nostalgic trend going on in fashion right now?
I am not too focused on nostalgic things. I am not nostalgic. I don’t think “Oh, we need to do something 80s or 90s.” I always want things to feel new and modern.

New and modern brands like yours and Off-White are booming at the moment, especially with younger generations. What are your thoughts about this new wave of subversive fashion that’s dominating the industry?
I don’t think I am the right person to talk about this because I am too inside the fashion world. It’s hard to see how successful a trend is, or how amplified something is. We look at everything on the internet, but I don’t know if it’s a reality. Sales reports and what is a ‘hit’ don’t always match up. You used to be able to tell if something was hitting because it was in the streets in NYC or I saw it in the clubs.

It’s a difficult time, but it’s a new era. Everything about the way we live from socializing to seeing to shopping is new because it’s digital – And you are at the beginning of it.

Any business that was structured to be successful in the 20^th century, is destined for failure in the 21^st. A lot of big brands that are going about business as usual, I am sure won’t be around in the near future. Brands like myself, we are growing out of this moment that is difficult in the industry, we have a greater chance of being successful because we are communicating with a generation we are a part of. We are open to trying new things, listening and engaging in what we do. When you are a big company, it is hard not to just go about business as usual, or with what works in the past. We are fortunate to be beginning our brand at this moment in time even though it’s a difficult one.

Since we are talking about digital, what do you think about Instagram? It has had a huge effect on the fashion community.
It’s a reality! This is how our world communicates. It’s a powerful tool that allows us to have a dialogue with people who like Alyx. We don’t have to speak through a magazine or store. It’s the most potent communication we can have. It’s amazing to have this unfiltered voice.

What do you think is missing in fashion?
What I make are things I feel are missing, or things I feel should exist. We do our part to use low impact fabrics and processes. We are trying to be conscious of how and where we make things.  Last season, making t-shirts we saved a million gallons of water through using up-cycled cotton.

That’s amazing! Not a lot of people talk about that in fashion…
We are a small brand. We still do use garment dye, but with factories that have the proper filters and follow EU union codes. With the T-shirts production, there was no water needed to grow cotton and that’s a huge saver. It’s complex thing, but that kind of accountability of the kind of product you make needs to be more present in fashion.
Many times, brands think the customer isn’t that intelligent and they want to simplify an answer, for them, and make something they think is palatable. In reality, life is complex and beautiful; it’s not so simple.  People do understand complex ideas, and care. This speaks to my belief system.  We are not just making clothing. This isn’t just a white t-shirt, this stands for a way of life. This is what I want to be a part of and achieve slowly with what I do at Alyx. It can be a new prototype on how to have a brand, and inspire other brands to work in the same way. It would be a great success to have new brands follow suit in how they work and build their collections. A new luxury.