The Givenchy bag combining Parisian elegance with Californian cool
Matthew M Williams’ ‘Voyou’ bag for Givenchy sees the designer meld his American roots with the house’s heritage of French design and craft

Sophie Gladstone - Photography
Illinois-born designer Matthew M Williams describes his S/S 2023 collection for Givenchy as a ‘transatlantic clash’, an amalgamation of style codes from his native United States and France, the home country of maison founder Hubert de Givenchy. A meeting of ‘Parisian elegance with California cool’, as Givenchy describes, the fusing of locales was encapsulated in the new ‘Voyou’ bag, which sees a ladylike V-shaped silhouette melded with tough, biker-inspired hardware and slouchy tumbled leather. It takes its name from a slang term in French, meaning ‘bad boy’.
Cultural exchange: Givenchy’s ‘Voyou’ bag
‘Voyou’ bag in medium green leather, €1,850, by Givenchy
‘With the Voyou, you know at a glance that it’s Parisian, but it’s at home wherever it goes,’ says Williams. Of the S/S 2023 collection more widely, the Givenchy creative director explains that ‘everything began with Hubert… I looked into his archives with my adopted Parisian eye, but also with my instinctive American eye. The cultural exchange reflected in this collection has been a long time in the making.’
Arriving in mini, medium and large sizes, alongside a veritable candy shop of colours – from vivid shades of pink and mint green to shiny laminated leather and denim – the Voyou is the latest addition to what Williams calls his ‘lexicon’ of Givenchy, a thread connecting past and present in the designer’s glossy, contemporary style. ‘I want to revisit fashion archetypes with a kind of new language,’ says Williams.
‘Voyou’ bag in large black leather, €2,200, by Givenchy
A version of this story appears in the April 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
-
Caribbean cool meets mid-century glamour at this new LA hotspot
From golden mirrored chambers to jerk-spiced tomahawk steaks, Lucia reimagines Afro-Caribbean dining and design
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
Love, community, anti-gay laws: the queer African artists redefining visibility through portraits
In honour of Pride Month, Ugonnaora Owoh speaks to three artists on African queer legacies and their optimism in advocating for queer rights through art
-
Givenchy’s Antigona Cube handbag riffs on a house classic
A much-loved Givenchy bag comes in a refreshed silhouette, inspired by the art of origami
-
How to wear black in summer
Wallpaper* journeys to Morocco’s Aman resort to make a case for wearing black this summer with S/S 2024’s most darkly dramatic looks
-
Utilitarian men’s fashion that will elevate your everyday
From Prada to Margaret Howell, utilitarian and workwear-inspired men’s fashion gets an upgrade for S/S 2024
-
Documentary ‘High & Low’ charts the rise, fall and redemption of John Galliano
‘High & Low: John Galliano’ (released today) dissects the designer’s showstopping contributions to fashion against the backdrop of his turbulent life. Here, director Kevin Macdonald tells Wallpaper* more
-
Givenchy Beauty’s latest eye products take cues from skincare and haute couture
Givenchy Beauty’s creative director Thom Walker catches up with Mary Cleary on the brand’s latest offerings
-
Best in shows: Wallpaper* picks S/S 2024’s standout looks
As part of Wallpaper’s Design Awards 2024 issue, we select the winning S/S 2024 runway collections – and their defining looks – at the start of a new season in style
-
Matthew M Williams is leaving Givenchy
American designer Matthew M Williams is set to exit his role as creative director of Givenchy after a three-year tenure
-
‘Givenchy Catwalk’: the new book cataloguing seven decades of pioneering Parisian style
Hubert de Givenchy to Alexander McQueen, Clare Waight Keller to Matthew M Williams, ‘Givenchy Catwalk’ catalogues every collection from the house and the designers who made them