Pharrell Williams Named New Creative Director of LV
Pharrell Williams has been named Louis Vuitton Men’s Creative Director.
February 28, 2023
For a long time, fashion and the entertainment industries have been connected, but on February 14 Louis Vuitton took it a step further and named Pharell Williams Creative Director of Men’s Wear at LV.
After Virgil Abolh’s sudden death in November 2021, at just 41-years-old, LV was faced with an unexpected challenge. Abolh, wh began LV in 2018, was the first African-American artistic director of a major French luxury house. He is also the founder and creator of Off White which is a mainstream success.
I now have a platform to change the industry . . . We’re designers, so we can start a trend, we can highlight issues, we can make a lot of people focus on something or we can cause a lot of people to focus on ourselves. I’m not interested in the latter. I’m interested in using my platform as one of a very small group of African-American males to design a house, to sort of show people in a poetic way.
— Virgil Abolh
The brand announced Williams’ new position as “a visionary whose creative universes expand from music to art, and to fashion – establishing himself as a cultural global icon over the past twenty years. The way in which he breaks boundaries across the various worlds he explores aligns with Louis Vuitton’s status as a Cultural Maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit, and entrepreneurship.” Pharrell’s first debut collection for Louis Vuitton is scheduled to launch in June during Paris Fashion Week Men’s.
Williams’ arrival at the LV is shocking and surprising to many, as many thought of a rising designer such as Martine Rose or Grace Wales Bonner. Clearly LVMH is going in the direction of a more established figure, who has no formal training as a designer. But that isn’t to say Pharrell has no experience in the fashion world. He is the founder of the Brand Billionaire Boys Club and has worked with many luxury houses. He previously was able to create an historic Chanel collaboration back in 2019 with former creative director Karl Lagerfled. The fashion community is excited to see where Williams will take the Louis Vuitton Men Brand.
