Louis Vuitton wasted no time in confirming the rumors. Hours after it was reported that Pharrell Williams was in talks to change into the brand new inventive director of LV’s males’s line, the French label made it official on Instagram. “His inventive imaginative and prescient past trend will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton in direction of a brand new and really thrilling chapter,” mentioned Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s chairman and CEO, in a press release. The 49-year-old’s first assortment can be introduced in Paris in June. (Nicolas Ghesquière continues to function the home’s ladies’s inventive director, a publish he’s held since 2013).
The announcement formally ends almost a yr’s price of hypothesis about who would change the late Virgil Abloh after the designer handed in November 2021. Hypothesis had beforehand circled on boundary-breaking American designer Telfar Clemens, British menswear iconoclast Martine Rose, award winner Grace Wales Bonner and, after his latest collaboration with the model, KidSuper’s Colm Dillane. Nearly nobody had talked about Williams as a chance (publicly, anyway) till this morning. Maybe as a result of, effectively, Williams is best recognized for his music profession. Alongside manufacturing companion Chad Hugo, Williams helped outline the sound of ’00s pop and rap, producing all the things from The Clipse’s hip-hop traditional “Grindin’” to Gwen Stefani’s pop earworm “Hollaback Lady.” Extra just lately, Williams served as a choose on The Voice and contributed the hit “Pleased” to the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack.
However his trend affect is simple—and this isn’t his first go-round within the model sphere. Again in 2003, he co-founded Billionaire Boys Membership (with subbrands that embrace Ice Cream footwear and Billionaire Ladies Membership) with A Bathing Ape founder Nigo (who’s now the inventive director of Kenzo, one other label owned by Vuitton’s guardian firm, LVMH). And whereas lately he’s served comfortably as an envoy for Chanel, he collaborated with Vuitton twice earlier than in 2006 and 2008. Williams had additionally beforehand collaborated with Moncler, Adidas, G-Star Uncooked, and Uniqlo. He’s additionally expanded into skincare along with his model Humanrace and hospitality with the South Seaside resort Goodtime.
“Pharrell Williams is a visionary whose inventive universes broaden from music to artwork, and to trend—establishing himself as a cultural international icon over the previous twenty years,” learn a press release from LV. “The way in which wherein he breaks boundaries throughout the assorted worlds he explores aligns with Louis Vuitton’s standing as a cultural maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit, and entrepreneurship.”
Undoubtedly, Williams has helped cement the blueprint for the modern-renaissance celeb: his charisma and expertise has rendered him a publicly recognized A-lister, however his behind-the-scenes craft throughout mediums bolsters his creative credibility. Nonetheless, it’s fairly uncommon (although not fully unprecedented) for somebody who has achieved a lot fame in one other realm to be given the keys to a historic trend home.
The announcement comes on the heels of one other main shakeup at Vuitton. Beccari, who beforehand held the identical publish at Dior, solely took over Louis Vuitton final month, succeeding longtime former CEO Michael Burke.