On 23 June, Louis Vuitton turns the lights on for the Paris men’s shows. Pharrell Williams takes the first night of the week again.
Williams holds the opening slot on the evening the men’s season begins. He has owned the start of the week since he arrived, and the house has turned the date into a fixed point. The front row travels for it. The rest of the calendar arranges itself around the gap he leaves.
His tenure is three years old now. Louis Vuitton named him men’s creative director in February 2023, after Virgil Abloh, and he opened that June on the Pont Neuf. The bridge was closed and the runway painted gold, a choir and an orchestra behind the clothes. The show told everyone what the job would look like under him.
Opening night
Each season since has worked the same way. A set you can read from across a courtyard, a soundtrack he produces himself, a guest list closer to a festival than a fashion show. Last June he laid a Snakes and Ladders board into the runway with Studio Mumbai and ran an Indian wardrobe across it, tailoring and dandyism in the house colours. A.R. Rahman and Tyler, the Creator carried the music.
The scale is the message. Williams came from records and stadiums, and he stages Louis Vuitton at that volume. The clothes have to hold their own against the production, and the strongest looks do. The luggage and the tailoring read clearly once the spectacle clears.
The trunk
Underneath all of it, the reference stays constant. Williams keeps returning to what Louis Vuitton was before it was anything else, a maker of trunks. The monogram, the luggage, a wardrobe built to move. Founded in 1854, the house put its workshop at Asnières in 1859, and that workshop still builds special orders by hand.
The travel codes give his menswear its spine. A garment bag becomes a coat. A trunk’s hardware turns up on a jacket. The house reads old and new at the same time, which is the line he has worked since the Pont Neuf.
The house was a trunk-maker first, and Williams never lets the runway forget it.
The Splendid EditThat is the trick he has settled into. He keeps the heritage visible and the staging modern, and the two pull against each other for twenty minutes. The clothes sell on the contrast. The house has grown used to handing him the loudest night of the season.
Louis Vuitton’s workshop at Asnières · Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The week
The rest of the schedule files in behind him. Paris men’s runs from 23 to 28 June, and the calendar is thick with debuts. Jonathan Anderson shows his Dior men on 24 June. Grace Wales Bonner opens her account at Hermès. Sarah Burton sends her first dedicated Givenchy menswear, and Michael Rider shows Celine.
Williams sets the register for all of it. Open the week loud enough and every house after has to answer. The clothes land on 23 June. The season starts when his music does.