The stage was first set last June—when Pharrell Williams showed his hand for Louis Vuitton. Newly-appointed as the house’s menswear creative director, he unveiled his debut collection at the Pont Neuf in Paris, and called upon his long list of celebrity contacts to attend the show, including the likes of Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Tyler the Creator and Zendaya. Since then, that crocodile-leather rendition of the Speedy—with that million-dollar price tag—has been seen on a select number of celebrities, from Jacob Elordi to Jackson Wang and Lebron James.
Late last year, Williams decidedly tried something new for the maison: its men’s pre-fall 2024 show in Hong Kong was the house’s first physical runway for a pre-collection. There was a luxurious outing of short suits, double-breasted coats, elevated versions of the aloha shirt and a great deal of sailor hats. Its front row similarly saw a star-studded guest list of all the biggest names in the East, from Stray Kids’s Felix to Dylan Wang and Sho Hirano. Two buzzy, successful shows have been tied to his name, but as we await the house’s men’s fall/winter 2024 collection today, the question is whether Williams has found his footing to truly reinvent the wheel.
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So far, Williams’s vision for the Louis Vuitton men’s fall/winter 2024 collection has been teased through the brand’s Instagram account—in collaboration with American illustrator Ron Husband. Where he imagines the first cowboy who “doesn’t know where he’s going or what he’ll do when he arrives”. Be it a cowboy-inspired collection or a metaphor for the house’s shared romance with the idea of travel, it’s clear there’s much to anticipate for tonight’s show. Not to mention an equally starry front row that is likely to see the same attendees from Hong Kong, with freshly-appointed ambassadors and K-pop septet Riize joining the crowd.
Set to unfold at the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, tune into the livestream and be amongst the first few to catch the Louis Vuitton men’s fall/winter 2024 collection on Tuesday, 17 January at 3AM Singapore time.
