Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari nodded to Williams’s previous work with the brand, saying in a statement: “I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home … His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton toward a new and very exciting chapter.” Late Tuesday afternoon, LVMH’s landing page featured a simple black-and-white photo of Williams, wearing a white T-shirt and diamond chain, with the greeting, “Welcome Pharrell!”
As the creative director of menswear, Williams will be charged with producing two collections a year, inclusive of bags, accessories and ready-to-wear clothing. His first collection for the fashion house will debut in June at Men’s Fashion Week in Paris. Williams’s appointment to a leading position at the world’s largest luxury brand also points to the continued cultural significance of hip-hop, further cementing its status as a global driver of fashion.
The 49-year-old Virginia native’s role as a cultural tastemaker and influencer is as varied as it is extensive. Williams is best known for his impact on the music industry, where he helped define hip-hop’s sound as a producer, songwriter and frontman of N.E.R.D. Alongside his own chart-topping music (2013′s inescapable “Happy”), Williams has collaborated with or produced hits for Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, among scores of other artists.
That lengthy résumé of collaboration extends to the fashion world, where he has worked with a number of major brands, among them Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Tiffany, Nike and Adidas. His most well-known partnership thus far, though, is his work with Japanese designer Nigo, founder of the streetwear company A Bathing Ape. Together, they launched the Billionaire Boys Club in 2003, a clothing, accessory and lifestyle brand aimed at blending streetwear and luxury. Its sneakers (released under the sub-label ICECREAM) were especially popular among youth skateboarders and hip-hop heads in Japan and the United States. (Nigo is now creative director of LVMH’s Kenzo label.)
Even with his bona fides as a tastemaker, Williams has big shoes to fill in Abloh’s absence. The first Black American to ever hold a head design position at a European luxury house, Abloh is credited with infusing a modern and, at times, ironic sensibility into the brand.
While rooted in the world of streetwear, Williams’s sense of style has been lauded for its irreverence and vast range (who can forget The Hat?). In 2015, he became only the second man to win a CFDA Fashion Icon award.
“I get my style from just random people, everyday people — like, construction is interesting to me. Everyday things, you know, service uniforms, sports, skateboarding, normcore, grandma sweaters — all of that stuff is interesting to me,” Williams told Vogue at the time. He was also an early adopter of the latest wave of gender-neutral clothing and aesthetics, wearing a ballgown puffer on the front of GQ’s New Masculinity Issue in 2019.
When asked about his choices to wear a purple crocodile Birkin bag or a pastel Céline coat, Williams told the magazine that style and fit came first: “I liked something, and I put it on. Then the philosophy came behind it.”
