Pharrell Williams
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Virgil Abloh’s successor at Louis Vuitton has been named. Pharrell Williams is the renowned fashion house’s new Men’s Creative Director.
The legendary producer will now be spearheading all things menswear for the luxury label. On Tuesday, Feb. 14 Louis Vuitton made the formal announcement. Louis Vuitton’s Chairman and CEO expressed his enthusiasm in a formal statement. “I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new Men’s Creative Director” he said. “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”
Pharrell Williams is a visionary, recording artist, producer, songwriter, philanthropist, fashion designer and entrepreneur with 10 billion combined global music streams to date. He has been honored with 13 Grammy Awards, including 2004, 2014 and 2019 for Producer of the Year and ASCAP’s Golden Note Award in 2012.
He has received two Academy Award nominations for his original song “Happy” (Despicable Me 2) and for Best Picture-nominated (Hidden Figures 2016) as co-producer. Williams also received a Golden Globe nomination for co-scoring the film. In 2019, Williams received an Emmy nomination for his original song “Letter to My Godfather,” for Netflix’s Black Godfather about legendary music executive Clarence Avant.
In 2020, Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for his work as The Neptunes.
Pharrell excels as a fashion designer and entrepreneur with his Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream apparel among other brands. In the fall of 2019, Williams teamed up with David Grutman and opened both Swan and Bar Bevy in Miami’s Design District, and The Goodtime Hotel in 2021. In 2020, Pharrell founded Humanrace, a product company with a mission to empower all individuals in their pursuit of well-being across product and people.
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Pharrell Williams has been named creative director of Louis Vuitton and will debut his first official collection in June during men’s fashion week in Paris, the luxury fashion house announced on Tuesday (Feb. 14).
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“Louis Vuitton is delighted to welcome Pharrell as its new men’s creative director. His first collection for Louis Vuitton will be revealed next June during men’s fashion week in Paris,” LMVH, Louis Vuitton’s parent company shared in a statement posted to the brand’s Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Williams is, of course, no stranger to the fashion world and known for his eclectic style. The Virginia native founded the streetwear brand, Billionaire Boys Club, in 2003 and has previously partnered with Louis Vuitton in the past and other major brands like Adidas. The 49-year-old father of three also launched Humanrace, a unisex skin-care line in 2020.
“I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new Men’s Creative Director,” said Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s Chairman and CEO. “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”
Williams will take over the position previously held by Virgil Abloh who passed away in 2021 following a battle with cancer. In an 2020 interview with the New York Times, Abloh shared how Williams and his Neptunes partner, Chad Hugo’s, N.E.R.D. album inspired his work.
“There’s an interview where [Williams] classically said, ‘The album is too white for Black radio and too Black for white radio,” Abloh explained at the time. “As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, skateboarding and finding my own identity, it resonated with me more than hip-hop on its own. [It said] that it was fine to be in between. And I think that has described a whole generation of young Black kids and artists who have since been determined to be themselves and jump through that door that was opened by Pharrell.”