Pharrell for Louis Vuitton Is the Marvel Movie of Fashion Shows
If it sounds crass, that's because it was.
Earlier in Back Row: Pharrell for Louis Vuitton and the Celebrification of Everything
What might compel Paris to close the historic Pont Neuf bridge and the center of the city in the middle of June starting in the mid-afternoon and going until late into the night, leaving thousands of spectators gawking from the Quai and likely thousands more to deal with the inconvenience?
Louis Vuitton hawking bags. And if that sounds crass, that’s because it was.
To be clear, casual street marketing around a repossessed ice cream truck with a few TikTokers this wasn’t. This was mega-celebrity Pharrell Williams’s first fashion show as the creative director for Louis Vuitton menswear. Guests were ferried to the bridge on cute little boats even though the location — being a bridge — is accessible by land.
Seated on the front row next to Tiffany face Jay-Z was LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person, depending on the day. (A shot of Arnault was included in the video of the show like an NFL owner during a football game who sits in a specific seat in the owner’s box to make sure the cameras don’t miss him.) Arnault is a supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron, and the two seem to have a cozy relationship. Bloomberg reported in 2020 that Arnault “leaned on the government” to get out of its Tiffany acquisition (LVMH denied this; the deal was ultimately completed in 2021). So maybe booking the bridge, which extends from Louis Vuitton’s headquarters, and shuttering part of Paris for one of his brand’s marketing events was something akin to a normal person making a reservation at a restaurant.
The historic bridge itself was covered in a gold version of Louis Vuitton’s checked Damier print. If you’ve followed this show at all, you’ve been exposed to the term Damier so many times that you long for your former existence where you never knew it was called that. Pharrell introduced versions in different colors and contrasts that he dubbed “Damouflage” which is Louis Vuitton for “pixelated.”
Damier also appeared on celebrity guests including Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, who wore it in denim; Kim Kardashian, who wore it in a camo colorway on leggings and a sports bra with a bulbous pet fanny pack around her waist; and the Voices of Fire choir who sang Williams’s composition “Joy (Unspeakable)” toward the end of the show. It appeared, of course, on many of the clothes in the collection and many handbags and luggage pieces, some of which were driven down the runway by select models. If LV does a public service with this spectacle, it will be making it OK for rich people to be rich again. The whole thing took place to the accompaniment of a full live orchestra (the music was, unsurprisingly, excellent). Other celebrity guests included Beyoncé, Zendaya, Jaden and Willow Smith, Lenny Kravitz, Naomi Campbell, and Tyler the Creator.
After the clothes were out of the way, Pharrell — in a full bootcut army green Damier suit — and Jay-Z performed together. It all looked fun in the way that stadium concerts are fun. It also had nothing to do with the clothes, which were of the splashy, easily identifiable (may of them emblazoned with “LV” or “LOUIS VUITTON” or “VUITTON”) influencer variety that stand out on social media. But that’s kind of the whole point of staging such an elaborate event — your show becomes review-proof, the same way that Marvel movies are review proof. Former New York Times film critic A.O. Scott explained on The Daily podcast in March that this was precisely why he didn’t want to review movies anymore:
…the fandoms are very sensitive and quite powerful, and to some extent, intimidating. I mean, these movies, I think, are designed to be critic-proof. You create something so enormous and so powerful that it seems like such just a fact of nature, almost, that it just crushes any dissenting voice or point of view and doesn’t give you a lot to talk about.
I mean, I guess I come back to that. If what criticism is is having an argument with or about a movie, the attempt to create argument-proof movies that no one will argue about, that no one will argue with, I think that’s very troubling to me.
And I do feel that there is, embedded in the superhero universe, a very strong and visible anti-democratic or authoritarian tendency. That is that what fandom is to me. And people will be mad. But I’m going to say it. Fandom is about obedience and about conformity.
Fashion is, like the film industry, leaning into the blockbuster strategy, where studios maximize profits by attempting to create a handful of mega-blockbusters each year (Mario, The Little Mermaid, a third [!] Hangover), rather than 20 thoughtful, quieter critical successes like Tár.
Some independent reviewers expressed horror at the clothes. Lewis’s called the Damier print “fucking hideous” in a critique I read in its Instagram story, where it also shared a choice Grace Coddington quote.
Pharrell is the second Black creative director for Louis Vuitton menswear, following Virgil Abloh. In this role, he is one of the highest ranking people in the fashion industry. Pharrell was given the job, he told the NYT, by his friend, Bernard’s son Alexandre Arnault (it all began with a text in December that read, “Please call me. The time has come.”).
Pharrell has real fashion bona fides and great personal style, which looked to have been mined for the runway show. But the idea of a fashion conglomerate commercializing Black art and culture has also drawn criticism. Fashioning the Self, which explores the intersection of slavery and fashion and was founded by Parsons Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture Jonathan Square, called the choir “bothersome” in an Instagram reel. “Whenever lackluster music or designs need to be enlivened or given soul, a Black choir is added as a quick fix,” it said, in order to add “color to otherwise uninspiring or mediocre art.”
But again, the show wasn’t meant to be a critical success or good design. It was meant to sell bags, from the small kind you sling across your body to the kind servants pile high on little cars to drive down tarmacs to private planes. It was meant to generate content for TikTokers. It was meant to commercialize Paris, heritage, celebrities. It was meant to be, simply, a show.
It also had the effect of making the Met Gala look like a daycare, and the recent Prada men’s show, where slime dripped down from the ceiling, look like adorable child’s play. Bernard Arnault seemed to be gazing down down that runway with a look of utter contentment because he knew he was about to be able to stuff his mattress with another billion or so dollars.
The show is being talked about as though a historic moment — the kind we’ll look back on and realize that this is the point at which a seismic industry shift occurred. But people had a similar feeling when Alexander Wang staged his after party at a gas station in 2009 and when Lady Gaga disrobed on her way into the Met Gala in 2019. Fashion doesn’t seem necessarily defined by such moments as much as it is reliant on them to survive.
That said, if I were Nicolas Ghesquière, who designs Louis Vuitton’s women’s collections and was in attendance Tuesday night, I’d be worried. But if I were any trained designer who dreamed of leading a fashion brand, it would be hard to watch this and not see the future I envisioned for myself evaporate before my eyes.
I think you captured the essence of this show. No offense to Pharrell, who I think is a talent in many areas, but the idea of designer as creative director is in peril.
Great read Amy. I found most of this collection to be more commercial and wearable than the Louis Vuitton main women’s line by Ghesquiere, and for a menswear collection it featured a large number of female models, as well as female celebrities like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, etc in the looks. It seems Pharrell’s approach is more inclusive casting and to a degree gender neutral clothing — which now gives women two versions of Louis Vuitton to choose from. This reminds me of when Hedi Slimane’s skinny suits and tailoring at YSL was so influential that women wanted to wear it too. [Side note: Ghesquiere’s Balenciaga was nothing short of revolutionary, but I’m not sure what he’s been smoking at LV. Even the paid celebs look terrible in the unwearable clothes.] Also, was that Stefano Pilati sashaying down the runway?