Pharrell Williams unveiled as new creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear

Pharrell Williams has been named the new creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear, the company has announced.

The multi-talented singer-songwriter-philanthropist will replace the late Virgil Abloh who died of cancer at the age of 41. Abloh was a groundbreaking designer known for merging streetwear and high fashion.

The position had been left vacant since November 2021, but now the luxury brand has announced the appointment of Williams effective immediately. His first collection is scheduled to be shown during Paris Men’s Fashion Week in June.

The luxury house said in a statement: “Pharrell Williams is a visionary whose creative universes expand from music, to art and to fashion — establishing himself as a cultural, global icon over the past 20 years.”

Word on the appointment first broke in The Wall Street Journal and Le Figaro on Tuesday (14 February).

The Happy singer is a 13-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar nominee with experience working with luxury brands and designers such as the late Karl Lagerfeld - Chanel’s longtime creative director who died in 2019.

‘His creative vision will lead to a very exciting chapter’

Williams collaborated with the luxury group LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) in 2004 and 2008.

He has had a massively popular trainer collaboration with Chanel since 2017 and a unisex clothing collection since 2019 that he designed with Lagerfeld. He also has his own fashion brands, including Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream.

The brand’s new chairman and CEO, Pietro Beccari, said in the statement: “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”

Williams will replace the late Abloh, a DJ and founder of the brand Off-White, who has been hailed as his generation’s Lagerfeld.

He was the first black director of menswear at Louis Vuitton and turned the job into that of “curator”, rather than simply “designer”, as he expanded his interests into housewares, art, jewellery, industrial design and architecture.

After his death, the brand carried on with its men’s fashion shows but largely without a creative director.