Pharrell Williams kicks off Paris fashion week with Louis Vuitton streetwear
Share:
The luxury collection, created in partnership with Nigo, brings varsity jackets, abstract camo and wide-leg silhouettes to the Louvre catwalk. Pharrell Williams kicked off Paris fashion week on Tuesday night with a menswear show that cemented Louis Vuitton’s position as the new luxury leader in streetwear.
The collection was created in partnership with Nigo, a Japanese designer and one of the most influential figures in streetwear. Williams, who has held the position of creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear since 2023, has a decades-long friendship with Nigo. The partnership follows a long line of collaborations between them including co-founding the streetwear labels Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream in 2003. Williams has called Nigo “one of the greatest curators of taste and purveyors of what’s next”. Williams has also been described as a visionary but for this collection the duo took inspiration from the past. The show notes described the show as gazing “into the future through the telescope of history”.
Exploring the codes of streetwear and dandyism, the show featured everything from varsity jackets to neat tailored suits. Held in a giant purpose-built mirrored box placed directly in front of the Louvre pyramid, models walked around a mauve-coloured catwalk upon which sat 24 vitrines showcasing an eclectic selection of items including sneakers, T-shirts, a boombox and gold Blackberry phone. Some pieces were taken from the personal archives of Williams and Nigo, who are avid collectors, while others came from previous Louis Vuitton shows. It aimed to serve as a visual history of the pieces that had inspired and informed the duo in creating a new joint collection.
