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 (opens in new tab).
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