This year, Paris Fashion Week opened with a menswear show by Pharrell Williams that consolidated Louis Vuitton’s position as the leading name in luxury streetwear.
Created in collaboration with Japanese streetwear designer Nigo, the collection was inspired by the past as it gazed into the future through the telescope of history. The collection revisited early 2000s aesthetics with wide-leg and low-rise silhouettes in both denim and tailored pieces. The designers reimagined the streetwear staple Camo patterns in abstract and pixelated designs.
The collection featured monograms on everything, from beanies to boots. Having first popularized bold, logo-heavy designs with his brand A Bathing Ape (BAPE) in 1993, Nigo revisited this concept by featuring cut-out facial silhouettes of himself and Williams on bags. He also paid homage to Louis Vuitton’s Parisian heritage with bags emblazoned with ‘Pont Neuf’ and ‘Since 1854.’
Blending streetwear with dandyism, the fashion show featured everything from varsity jackets to sharply tailored suits. Models walked the mauve-colored runway set in a massive mirrored structure built in front of the Louvre pyramid. They were surrounded by 24 vitrines displaying a mix of eclectic items, including sneakers, T-shirts, a boombox, and a gold Blackberry phone.
Some pieces were inspired by Williams and Nigo’s personal collections, while others came from previous Louis Vuitton shows, creating a visual archive of their influences and inspiration for this collaboration.
Nigo previously worked with Louis Vuitton under the late Virgil Abloh, who served as the brand’s menswear artistic director. In 2020, they collaborated on a capsule collection, with Abloh praising Nigo as an ‘engineer’ who bridged the gap between ‘high and low’ fashion. The partnership between the two reflects LVMH’s dedication to the burgeoning streetwear market, projected to reach $637 billion by 2032.
