Louis Vuitton has named Grammy winning producer, musician and designer Pharrell Williams its new men’s creative director on Tuesday, calling the songwriter a “visionary whose creative universes expand from music to art, and to fashion.”
“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,” Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s chairman and CEO said in a statement. “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”
With Williams first collection to debut during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, many fashion labels and individuals in the industry react to the news of Williams succeeding Virgil Abloh, the former men’s creative director who died in November 2021 due to cancer.
Osama Chabbi, a fashion stylist and commentator, mentioned how some people were criticizing the news of the fashion luxury house appointing Williams to be the menswear creative director.
“Crazy how when a creative visionary like Pharrell Williams is appointed at a key luxury house everybody is suddenly a creative direction & design traditionalist,” Chabbi wrote on Twitter. “The mold is no longer there, there’s room for self expression and fashion is a business with KPIs, get on it.”
Robin Givhan, Senior Critic Reporter at Washington Post, is one of many who criticized the luxury brand’s decision to hire Williams.
“Abloh was groundbreaking. The choice of Williams is not,” wrote Givhan in her review.
Givhan added in her review that Louis Vuitton’s choice “suggests that a pure designer, committed…to both the technical aspects of fashion as well as its creative expression, was not enough. That’s disheartening. It’s also simply not true.”
Williams has collaborated with several fashion brands in the past such as Adidas, Moncler and Chanel. He also worked with designer Marc Jacobs on an eyewear design for Louis Vuitton.
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