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Matthew Williams’ luxury streetwear label 1017 ALYX 9SM has secured investment from Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Adrian Cheng, the company confirmed Friday.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cheng serves as chief executive of the Hong Kong-based property development group New World Development Company. He also founded C Capital in 2017, an investment fund which has since taken stakes in 60 companies across the fashion, tech and media sectors, according to its website.
Williams founded Alyx with the help of Slam Jam’s Luca Benini in 2015, creating luxury clothing infused with the street culture he’d been immersed in since growing up as a skater in California. (Williams was also part of the DJ collective turned streetwear brand, Been Trill, which he founded in 2010 the likes of Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston.)
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The brand, which initially focused on womenswear, received critical acclaim early on and was selected as a 2016 LVMH Prize finalist. Williams then debuted a menswear collection in 2017, which became a hit with celebrities at the forefront of streetwear’s convergence with luxury, such as Travis Scott and Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West.
The investment in Williams’ label comes as the hype that drove sales growth in the streetwear category in the latter half of the 2010s has cooled in recent years.
Williams — who has simultaneously worked as the creative director at LVMH-owned Givenchy since January 2020 — built a cult following at a time when the brand’s utilitarian, streetwear aesthetic was coveted by luxury consumers. Over the years, the brand has launched high-profile collaborations with companies from Nike to Audemars Piguet, whilst also building a sizeable roster of global stockists that includes Dover Street Market, Selfridges and Ssense.
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