His life in Paris was lonely at first. He moved right here in 2020, within the early and most remoted days of the pandemic. Mr. Williams had at all times been nomadic, however now he was a newly divorced father, alone in a brand new metropolis with a brand new high-pressure job who couldn’t simply journey to see his youngsters. His two daughters, ages 5 and eight, stay in London with their mom — Mr. Williams’s ex-wife previously oversaw gross sales for Alyx — whereas his teenage son with a earlier associate lives in the USA.
“I believe the business doesn’t actually know me, who I truly am,” Mr. Williams stated. “I believe they’ve an concept of who I’m from picture shoots” — maybe from the Givenchy perfume launched earlier this 12 months that was, considerably unusually, named after him — “however I spend all my free time with my household, my children, after which I work.”
When the women go to (each different weekend, Mr. Williams stated), they have an inclination to the strawberry plant on the terrace’s backyard that he started rising as a form of single-dad passion. He additionally takes cooking classes.
If his life sounds quaint, keep in mind that he’s equally enthusiastic a few water filtering machine from Japan that he stated retains his blood at “a impartial pH.” “It’s like 3,000 or 4,000 euros, however then you definitely by no means purchase water,” he stated.
New York Metropolis, which he just lately visited for a Givenchy social gathering, nonetheless feels essentially the most like dwelling to him, he stated. The social gathering was on the rooftop of the town’s new cool lodge du jour, 9 Orchard, although Mr. Williams went to Brooklyn afterward to see a present at a rave venue he likened to certainly one of Ibiza’s large golf equipment. New York is the place he began Alyx, one thing he felt the curators of the Met Costume Institute missed once they didn’t embrace him in final 12 months’s exhibition celebrating a large swath of American trend designers.
“I believe generally possibly the Individuals overlook that I’m American,” he stated.
“I don’t know if there’s a youthful individual within the business that’s heading a maison,” he stated, questioning out loud concerning the ages of Jonathan Anderson, the artistic director of Loewe, and Demna, who designs Balenciaga.
