How do you sum up a fashion show that seeks to represent the entire world? Pharrell Williams gave it a shot following yet another supernova spectacle for Louis Vuitton Men’s, held on the grounds of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. “It was an homage,” he said, “to human beings.”
Cue slightly nervous laughter, from the small press gaggle and from the LV creative director himself. Pharrell knows how to go big in all aspects of his life and work, but this was a message so hugely universal that you couldn’t help but find it daunting.
Still, if anyone can pull off fashion’s “We Are the World” moment, it’s Pharrell. The production began in typical Louis Vuitton fashion, with a pre-show hangout among Pharrell’s rainbow coalition of famous friends and collaborators. Under the flags of all nations, Central Cee and Sabrina Carpenter made small talk while Colman Domingo and Michael Fassbender posed for photos in their new LV duds. All 7-foot-4 of Victor Wembanyana loomed over the proceedings, like Atlas next to a steel sculpture of the globe.
As the sun poked through a curtain of rain clouds, it soon became apparent how Pharrell had organized his homage: in a spectrum of skin tones paired with matching monochrome clothing. “From black to dark brown to brown to light brown to beige, a little bit of gray in there. Then we got to light beige, and then finally to white,” said Pharrell of the lineup. “I don’t know if you guys saw that,” he added.
It was hard to miss. The opening suit was cut in the darkest of formal velvet, while look 66 was a milky silk topcoat. In between, Pharrell’s vision of high-flying luxury whizzed by in a multicultural gradient. Backstage, Pharrell said he had been thinking of the impending Olympics, the preparations for which have already brought parts of Paris to a standstill in advance of next month’s opening ceremony.
“If you’re the fastest person in this Olympics, then you’re the fastest person for the next four years. But unless there’s humans out in the solar system, you’re pretty much the fastest person in the solar system,” Pharrell ruminated. The show was his tribute to human excellence and connection: “How can we show the world how appreciative we are, and show the world how beautiful we are as a species, from the blackest of the black to the whitest of the white?”
This being a Pharrell production, there was a full orchestra wearing custom LV suits, and the Voices of Fire gospel choir were decked out in Damier check frocks to belt the cinematic Pharrell-composed soundtrack “Triumphus Cosmos.” Carpenter’s entrance fueled momentary speculation that she and Pharrell would debut a song together during the show, as the hitmaker did with Mumford & Sons in January and Swae Lee and Rauw Alejandro at his pre-fall outing in Hong Kong. Instead, that honor went to Clipse brothers Pusha T and Malice, whose John Legend-featuring heater “Birds Don’t Sing” rang out through the UNESCO gardens midway into the program.
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