“I want to make clothes that are reliable. Clothes that I can wear, and that my friends can wear. It’s very simple,” Alexandre Mattiussi tells me, speaking exclusively before tonight’s Ami show. Yet, the truth about this scoop is that it’s nothing new: just as the founder refers to every new collection as “my favorite”, Mattiussi has been preaching the same message of “straightforward clothes for real people” ever since he presented Ami’s first collection in 2011.
Tonight’s show is a 15th-anniversary special. Is Mattiussi excited about the milestone? “I will be more excited about the 18th,” he says flatly. “That’s a really important number. And I think the best is yet to come. But I am very excited about the collection. It’s the beginning of a new cycle for me. It’s got a new energy, a splash of color, of joy — and of reality.” I know what he’s going to say next, and he does: “It’s my favorite!”
Born and raised in Normandy to an Italian father and a French mother, Mattiussi knew his vocation from an early age. After stints at Dior Homme, Marc Jacobs, and Givenchy, he founded Ami in late 2010 as a menswear alternative to the overcomplication and performative angoisse he’d observed in his career thus far: the clothes, strikingly relatable; while the spiel, naturally unpretentious. “I suppose if I wanted to be, maybe, a controversial, political, or conceptual designer, I could be. But it’s not my thing,” Mattiussi says.
‘Ami’, bien sûr, means “friend”. The brand’s official name also includes the word ‘Paris’ to emphasize the casual Parisian ease Mattiussi had observed less at his places of work than in his places of play, among his friends. Which brings us to Nicolas Santi-Weil, who has been CEO and the financial yin to Mattiussi’s creative yang since 2013.
“We feel like an old couple in a way,” says Mattiussi, as Santi-Weil laughs from his box on the video call. “At 13 years, it’s one of my longest relationships, and I am very proud.” Like any old couple, the pair occasionally clash, but have learned through counseling how to de-escalate. Says Santi-Weil: “We’ve learned to count down and find the time to express to one another when we disagree, or don’t understand something. I think it’s a beautiful relationship. I have full trust in Alexandre, and I’m amazed by his creativity, which is driven by wanting to make people happy. So if you ask how do I stay for 13 years, then it is because of this.”
