Now, there are egotistical designers, and power mad creators and megalomaniacs dans la mode, and we got a little of all three while witnessing a very fine Louis Vuitton menswear collection Tuesday night in Paris.
It felt like one had been summoned to a G-7 summit, or at least a gathering of heads of state, so elaborate was the security to enter this show, staged under threatening skies in UNESCO headquarters main garden.
Road barriers were placed three blocks away; and emails warned guests to arrive 90mns before the 8.30PM start time. Invitees were then repeatedly requested to take their seats over the loud-hailing system by another muscular ego, show producer Etienne Russo. Security staff scurried around demanding people sit down on the green bench seating, before a runway made of square- meters of grass in light and dark green LV Damier pattern.
All this to just see some clothes. Which, fortunately, turned out to be an impressive collection of clobber. A proud display by its Men’s Creative Director Pharrell Williams who has clearly putting in overtime in his studio and atelier.
Opening with a great series of jet-black tailoring – crisp suits; black crystal lapel tuxedos; and a marvelous undertaker’s coat in black velvet worn by a model with a jaunty beret trimmed in Damier. Think subtle versions of Huey P. Newton chic.
The American designer rifled through a whole series of materials – rawhide, cashmere, techy leather and suede monogram – in black, blackened steel and anthracite. A bona fide tour de force of Stasi spy-coats; slinky jerkins embroidered with monogram motifs; posh chauffeurs’ tunics and Matrix killer suits. Practically all of them worn by black models in a multitude of hues. In a France teetering on the edge of possibly voting into power an extreme right-wing party famed for blaming immigrants for the nation’s problems, this was a powerful statement.
Pharrell even made a curious homage to deep violet – a color deeply associated with Sabato Del Sarno at Gucci – creating see-through cases, transparent cabans and a giant trunk. One of several wheeled around on wheelbarrows, as he did in his previous Louis Vuitton ‘Wild West’ show in January.
Climaxing with some great men’s couture: from a divine mink windcheater inserted with vertical columns of pearls (merci Yves Salomon); minimalist foamy neoprene outfits in dark putty; crocodile funnel neck bombers and a beige shaven mink jean jacket. Ideal clobber for his followers, whom Pharrell has tagged as the LVERS. All accessorized with Rubrik’s cube-hued bags and pearl encrusted totes. In a show graced by a custom-made orchestral mashup soundtrack by Pharrell that was the best so far this menswear season in Europe.
Garnering Pharrell Williams a prolonged ovation as he took a very extended tour of the garden.
Williams entitled this spring-summer 2025 collection Le Monde est à Vous, meaning The World is Yours. His program notes said it was meant to celebrate “the humans that cohabit the Earth. Zooming out of this planet we call home.”
The program added that as “our international community comes together in Paris… Pharrell Williams… reflects on the unifying spirit of the global mentality of Louis Vuitton.”
Except at the center of the garden, there was whole area closed off for VIPs underneath Erik Reitzel’s famous metallic globe. Not exactly unity. Even given legitimate concerns for the security of Vuitton’s owner and Europe’s richest individual Bernard Arnault and his family, the division of the audience into two categories of guests felt rather vulgar. The entirety of French fashion media remained on the outside of the circle. The same thing happened at the last Vuitton women’s show at the Louvre in March.
So, to paraphrase George Orwell, it turns out that when it comes to LVERS, some are more equal than others.
A pity that, as this was a noble collection.
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