On Valentine’s Day this year, Louis Vuitton shared an exciting announcement regarding the new figure stepping into the role of Men’s Creative Director: Pharrell Williams.
William’s assumes the role as the successor to the late Virgil Abloh who passed in November of 2021. Abloh had been fulfilling the position since 2018 when he replaced Nicolas Ghesquiere as being in charge of the menswear collections. Abloh was quickly recognized to be a revolutionary, especially in relation to the LV brand. Influence from Abloh’s personal style and obvious passion for streetwear infiltrated the LV aesthetic and curated a very unique, revived and engaging LV.
In the aftermath of Abloh’s unexpected passing, the fashion world mourned the loss of a brilliant creator and wondered if there would ever really be a proper fit to carry the LV menswear brand forward without diminishing what Abloh had so intelligently crafted during his time in charge.
Virgil Abloh’s last runway show took place two days after his passing on November 30, 2021, to showcase the LV Spring/Summer 2022 Menswear Collection, and his last lookbook for Pre-Fall 2022 was released following the show. For more than a year after, LV operated with the title of Men’s Creative Director unfulfilled. The brand continued to release menswear collections across the fashion calendar of that year, with these collections emulating Abloh and attempting to carry out his influence on the brand.
Now, in 2023, we’re preparing for the Pharrell Williams Era to debut when Williams shares his first collection for the brand next June in Paris for Men’s Fashion Week, and there’s definitely a sense of excitement in the air of the fashion community.
Though many thought a new, up-and-coming designer would catch Louis Vuitton’s eye, Williams feels like a natural choice to follow in the footsteps of Abloh. Williams is not a fashion designer in the technical sense, which is intriguing when it comes to theorizing about his approach to taking a hold of the reins when it comes to designing menswear collections. Though Williams doesn’t have a structured background in fashion, he has done his fair share of the work in the industry and clearly displays a passionate interest in the creativity associated with clothing.
Not only has Williams founded his own streetwear label (with business partner NIGO) in 2003, but he’s also worked with Louis Vuitton on collaboration projects since 2004. In the early 2000s, the Men’s Creative Director of the time, Marc Jacobs, reached out to both Williams and NIGO to design a line of sunglasses for the brand. The line brought about the iconic Millionaire sunglass which surged in popularity and even prompted LV to bring them back three years later, in 2007, with a variety of color options (it’s notable that Abloh brought the glasses back AGAIN in his debut SS19 collection for LV in 2018). After the proven success of Pharrell and NIGO’s sunglass collaboration, Williams linked up with LV again in 2008 to develop a jewelry line titled Blason.
The fashion world ties that Williams has do not end there either. He’s also worked with brands such as Bape, Moncler, Adidas, Chanel and Tiffany and Co.
Suffice it to say, Williams has the resume to back his position as LV, but that’s not nearly the most important part of this appointment. A huge part of Abloh’s aesthetic as Men’s Creative Director was in reference to his culture and social experiences, particularly as a Black man. In order to allow Abloh’s vision to flourish the way it should’ve gotten a chance to, LV couldn’t just appoint anyone as the CD. Hiring Pharrell Williams, another explosive Black creative with similar West African ancestral ties, to follow Abloh’s legacy feels like a beautiful sentiment to honoring his direction and vision for the brand we’ll never be able to fully experience.
While no one will replace, nor diminish, Abloh and his impact on the LV brand, Williams is a respectable and intriguing successor. There doesn’t seem to be any question on whether or not he will be able honor the legacy that came before him; all there’s left to wonder is how exactly he will choose to expand on, elaborate and elevate Louis Vuitton for the future.