Pharrell Williams has been named imaginative director of Louis Vuitton menswear, according to the vogue residence.
Louis Vuitton declared Williams’s new purpose in a information launch Tuesday, calling the producer and mogul “a visionary” and a “international icon” who has poured his artistic spark into numerous aspects for extra than two many years.
Williams will be getting the placement that when belonged to designer Virgil Abloh, who died Nov. 28, 2021, after silently battling cancer. Williams’ first selection less than Louis Vuitton will be revealed in June during men’s trend 7 days in Paris.
The Billionaire Boys Club designer has labored with Louis Vuitton on collaborations in 2004 and 2008 with his 1.1 millionaire sunglasses, which Abloh pulled from the archives during his first assortment for Louis Vuitton.
“The way in which (Pharrell) breaks boundaries across the several worlds he explores aligns with Louis Vuitton’s status as a Cultural Maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit and entrepreneurship,” Tuesday’s release stated.
Williams introduced his new situation with a photograph of himself wrapped in a Louis Vuitton blanket that he posted to Instagram.
In spite of getting known for manufacturing megahits this kind of as “Pleased,” “Frontin’ ” and “Blurred Strains,” Williams has a rich historical past with style collaborations, possessing worked with Moncler, Adidas and Chanel.
Williams now takes the torch from Abloh, who was the initial Black designer to keep a artistic director posture at Louis Vuitton. Williams was a shut buddy of the late resourceful.
Mourning his dying in 2021, Williams wrote on Twitter: “My coronary heart is broken Virgil you have been a variety, generous, thoughtful imaginative genius your perform as a human and your do the job as a spiritual being will live for good Sending adore and light to your spouse, little ones, spouse and children and working day kinds you are with the Learn now, glow.”
“I am happy to welcome Pharrell back home,” Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Pietro Becarri wrote. “His imaginative vision outside of trend will certainly direct Louis Vuitton in the direction of a new and quite interesting chapter.”
