Ahead of Pharrell Williams’ debut for Louis Vuitton, his first campaign as creative director of menswear featured a pregnant Rihanna. Tuesday’s monumental show found Beyoncé and Jay-Z, LeBron and Savannah James, Kim Kardashian, Lewis Hamilton, Zendaya, Lenny Kravitz, Maluma and Anitta, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky scattered in the front row.
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Although the new appointment of LV’s menswear creative director didn’t garner the greatest reaction, Williams has the resume. Despite no formal background in music or fashion, he won 13 Grammys and joined projects involving Moncler and Moynat and partnerships with Chanel and Adidas labels. Starting in 2004, the mogul co-designed a line of eyewear with Marc Jacobs at Vuitton, followed by a Vuitton jewelry collection in 2008. Most recently, he co-created a unisex clothing collection with Chanel’s late creative director Karl Lagerfeld in 2019.
The esteemed position remained vacant since 41-year-old Virgil Abloh’s unexpected passing in November 2021.
“It’s like love at first sight. LV is for Louis Vuitton, but it’s also for lovers, you know: lovers of the moment, lovers of detail, lovers of this time and people who want to absolutely squeeze the best out of life, down to the last drop.”
Willams told WWD
Pharrell Williams’s debut show for Louis Vuitton starts with Pupil King, a short film by Todd Tourso. Tourso’s two-minute foray captures the essence of dreams, something that continually pushes us into the future. Comedian Jerrod Carmichael asks artist Henry Taylor, “Do you admit to yourself how bad you want it?” But Taylor responds calmly, “Sometimes I don’t say, like, truly how badly I want it.”
Damier, the house’s long-forgotten print, was inescapable on the runway – from sunglasses and boots to handbags and jackets. Also, Williams utilized his collaboration with the gospel choir Voices of Fire’s “JOY (Unspeakable)” throughout the show’s duration.
Pharrell Williams looked dashing in head-to-toe Damier print whilst closing the show with his crew. At Louis Vuitton’s headquarters’ afterparty, JAY-Z performed classics like “N***as In Paris” and “PSA” on stage in a custom LV jacket and performed “I Just Want To Love U (Give It 2 Me)” alongside Williams.
