LOUIS VUITTON PRE-FALL 2024 MENSWEAR: CHASING THE GOLD STANDARD

Yes, these days Pharrell Williams is also showing his own pre-fall collections and his mensware pre-fall 2024 show was held in Hong Kong. By doing its two pre-fall shows in the same region, Louis Vuitton demonstrated its focus on the importance of China – and Asia in general. But while we said that despite the art collaboration Nicolas Ghesquière’s collection is all about form and silhoutte, not decor, the opposite can be said about Pharrell Williams’ collection: the most important thing in this collection and in Pharrell Williams' menswear in general is precisely this process of decorating in the broadest sense of the word. Moreover, decorating is the essence of Louis Vuitton by Pharrell Williams.

The collection shown at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour was most obviously dedicated to the sea — the sandy beach piled on the runway ended in the blue waves below it. But there was no strictly curated marine references, there was a mixture of everything related to the sea, from ships to beaches. The white uniform of American sailors (Williams himself wore a spin-off costume) with round sailor-hats, the pea jackets, trousers, and berets of the French sailors, the sailor collars, of course, but also the Hawaiian shirts and surfboards, the raincoats and fishermen rubber boots (made from leather, of course) and the blazers of yachtsmen — all the mainstream imagery is obviously suitable for Williams with his goals and objectives.

And his objectives are to process these images and make mass luxury, without loading it with any specific significance and without distracting attention from the accessories, LV’s main driving force. As a result, such items as baseball jackets (some, however, with a sailor collar), joggers with track tops, and ordinary summer overalls with shorts all come into play. Pharrell Williams — who is also a musician, a producer, and an art director — engages with popular culture and shapes it to a certain extent, and it was in this capacity that he was hired by Louis Vuitton.

How does Pharrell Williams tackle his objectives? Precisely with the help of decor and materials that were the focus of the designer’s work on LV menswear collection, work that was executed with great care and not without ingenuity. Pearl-topped buttons on sailor suits and tipped denim rivets on jeans, a variety of appliques, including a red suede short and shirt set garlanded with wire-edged flowers, which can be shaped according to your own taste. There was the jacquard jacket embroidered with pearls that closed the show, the beaded shorts, wetsuits and ponchos in neoprene, a rattan coat and a sailor's hat as well as the new shoes model named Cobra, 3D-printed in TPU. And, of course, it was a real fiesta of accessories: new versions of the Speedy and a new chest bag, an ukulele strap, many different charms, bi-color checkerboard archive versions of the Damier design that retained its first hand-brushed traces, as well as a new scuba-effect version of the same checkerboard. To summarize, Pharrell Williams makes LV menswear, where a surfboard meets an ukelele, and a wetsuit meets a tailored one, and all this is embroidered with pearls, whose goal is to attract and reconcile everyone.

Courtesy: Louis Vuitton

Text: Elena Stafyeva