![]() He presented an initial concept for his collection to LVMH chief Bernard Arnaut and Beccari and got to work. He and his family would be moving to Paris. ![]() This is a new career, and a huge new job. As soon as he accepted the role, he decided he wouldn’t be commuting from his home in Miami. It’s difficult to imagine Pharrell working any harder than he has. “I didn't know it was leading to this though,” he says of his prior accomplishments. Pharrell, famously, profusely humble, demures. He is, in many ways, perfect for the job. But as one of the biggest music producers on the planet, a designer with credible claim to the massification of streetwear, and a fashion disciple who has designed alongside legends like Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld, it’s not like he’s unqualified. Yes, the rumors swirling in before the announcement indicated that the position might go to a buzzy young designer, someone who graduated from a prestigious fashion school. While Pharrell may have been shocked by his appointment to this position, I suggest that for others, it may not have been such a surprise. The windows in the studio look towards the Seine, but seated on a C-shaped sofa in the corner, Pharrell and I are joined by the 15-meter tall likeness of Yahoi Kusama that has been installed in front of the building, and who’s head rises to be eye level with us. Pharrell’s furnishings had not yet arrived. ![]() When I met him there last week, the room was mostly occupied by racks of clothes, whiteboards, and a few tables, at which half a dozen or so members of Pharrell’s design team were quietly working on Tuesday’s spectacle. Since taking over, Pharrell has been working out of a studio in the LV headquarters just across the street from the Pont Neuf in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement. “Blindsided.” That’s how Pharrell felt sitting in his Miami studio in late 2022, looking out over the water from his balcony, when he heard that he’d been chosen by Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari to be the house’s next men’s creative director. It was the work of Pharrell in conjunction with the powerhouse that is LVMH-a union of luxury and pop culture forces. This guest list was not merely the work of a high-powered celebrity wrangler. You couldn’t take three steps without bumping into one of them: Beyoncé, Jay, Kim, Zendaya, Tyler, Lebron, Rocky, Rihanna. But there were more one-name stars at this show than I have ever seen in one place, and a few who I have never seen at a fashion show. Some may assume that all fashion shows are full of celebrities and splashy live performances and Champagne, which is true to some extent. It puts an exclamation mark on the very meaning of his appointment in February: A paradigm shift is here, one that recenters fashion in the universe of art and entertainment. Pharrell has not just upped the ante he has launched the entire enterprise into the stratosphere. This was not merely a star-studded runway show. He shut down the Pont Neuf, wrapped it in gold, ran a runway from end to end, and filled it with a fashion spectacle that makes instantly clear Pharrell has returned to stunting-now with the power and resources of LVMH, Europe’s most valuable company, at his disposal. It was one of the most anticipated events in recent fashion history-maybe all of fashion history-and the superstar music producer delivered a show full of megawattage and pure joy. ![]() As the sun set over the Seine in Paris last night, Pharrell Williams debuted his vision for Louis Vuitton.
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