Take a closer look at the Louis Vuitton men’s spring/summer 2024 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week
Louis Vuitton has found Virgil Abloh’s most suitable successor in Pharrell Williams. That much was clear when the latter made his debut as creative director of menswear for the French fashion brand at Paris Fashion Week.
Pharrell unveiled Louis Vuitton Men’s spring/summer 2024 collection with much fanfare, complete with a choir, a concert and countless celebrities. Rapper Jay-Z was there (he fronted the aforementioned concert), as was his wife Beyoncé, who had somehow found time for the show in between her Renaissance World Tour dates. Rihanna, who had starred in Pharrell’s first Louis Vuitton campaign, baby bump and all, was also in attendance. So were Louis Vuitton ambassador Zendaya; artists Takashi Murakami and Kaws; Kenzo designer Nigo; F1 stars Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly; Korean actor Song Joong Ki; Asian superstars JJ Lin and Jackson Wang; and, oh, Kim Kardashian.
Read more: Watch Pharrell’s first Louis Vuitton Men fashion show
Those are just a handful of famous people who converged upon the Pont Neuf bridge overlooking the Seine river, which served as the spectacular runway for Pharrell’s first Louis Vuitton collection. Across over 70 looks, the newly minted designer made his proposal: the men will wear checks. The pattern appeared in some form across the suits, coats, bomber jackets, boxy shirts (pun intended) and denim pieces that the models wore, with matching shorts or pants. There was Louis Vuitton’s iconic Damier check, of course, but also what Pharrell coined as “Damoflage”—that is, a pixellated camouflage print, which he was decked in as he took his bow at the end of the show.
Those looks were very much in the vein of what Virgil Abloh had produced for the maison. Pharrell’s own flourishes could be better seen in the ensembles that came out in the latter half of the fashion show: knit cardigans that recalled his favourite Chanel jackets; pearl-embellished accessories that seemed to cross both jewellery and sunglasses, and which are perhaps a part of his Tiffany and Co collaboration; and a long, lavish fur coat covered in Louis Vuitton’s monogram. You could easily imagine Pharrell, at the height of his stardom as a musician in the 2000s, flaunting that last piece in one his music videos.