From hip hop to Louis Vuitton — how Pharrell Williams took over the world of music and fashion

Grammy-winning musician and producer Pharrell Williams has been named Louis Vuitton’s next menswear creative director, stepping into one of the most high-profile jobs in fashion.

The appointment fills a highly coveted vacancy at the French luxury fashion brand after the death of Williams’s friend and supporter Virgil Abloh in November 2021.

There had been months of speculation about the names in the frame for the role, including emerging talent such as the Jamaican-British designers Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, and American designers Telfar Clemens and Colm Dillane.

But Williams’ appointment — which is somewhat of a surprise to insiders — is a reflection of the continued convergence of luxury and streetwear, and the new era of celebrity fashion designers. It also marks only the second time a black American designer has held a head position at the French luxury house. Abloh was the first when he was appointed in March 2018.

Williams, who has long been influential in the fashion industry, has worked on and off with Louis Vuitton since 2004. His first collection will be revealed in June 2024 during men’s fashion week in Paris.

Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s Chairman and CEO, described Williams’ appointment as a homecoming. “I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new men’s artistic director. His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”

So how did Williams become one of the most influential figures in music and fashion?

‘I always knew I was going to do music’ — from school talent show to record studio

Williams said he never doubted that he would one day make music.

“I was always making music as a kid, but never thought I could do something with it,” he told the Guardian in January. “I always knew I was going to do music, I just never knew what — whether I would end up as a terrible music teacher or an art teacher who was always asking his friends to come over and play on the side.”

Born to a church-going family in Virginia on April 5, 1973, and the son of a handyman father and a teacher mother, Williams can vividly remember the energy church music gave him.

“You would literally see the stirring of the spirit around the pews of the church”, he told Vogue Man last year. “It’s much like when you see the wind forming a pattern as it breezes through a collection of bushes and trees.”

His career took off when he met schoolfriend Chad Hugo at a seventh-grade summer band camp — Williams played drums and Hugo, tenor saxophone. The pair created R&B group the Neptunes with friends Shay Haley and Mike Etheridge.

They soon afterwards entered a high school talent show, where they were discovered by producer Teddy Riley, whose studio was next door to the school. Riley signed the group and they began producing and writing for rappers in the early 1990s.

Jay-Z, Britney, Gwen Stefani and Ariana Grande — the most coveted producer in the world

The Neptunes quickly became one of the most sought-after production teams in the world in the 2000s.

After the group’s production of Nelly’s Hot in Herre, which marked the start of a new movement of southern hip-hop, they were quickly snapped up by music legends such as Jay-Z. He featured Williams’s vocals on his eighth studio album, The Black Album.

With a spectral, percussive style (Williams was inspired by Carl Sagan’s 1980s television series Cosmos), the Neptunes expanded their reach by collaborating with musicians such as Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani. They soon left their stamp on every era-defining record, from Snoop Dogg’s Drop It Like It’s Hot to Stefani’s Hollaback Girl and Spears’ Slave 4 U.

According to a 2003 survey, the group produced almost 20 per cent of songs played on British radio at the time. Another survey in the US found they had produced 43 per cent of radio songs.

Williams went on to form the band N.E.R.D and establish himself as not only a producer but also a singer and rapper. He recorded some of the most successful singles of the 2000s, including the groove-infused Daft Punk collaboration Get Lucky and the iconic earworm hit Happy. He has also become the go-to songwriter and producer for everybody from Ariana Grande to Megan Thee Stallion.

An illustrious, two-decade music career has earned him 13 Grammys from 38 nominations, two Oscar nominations and four Billboard number one hits.

“I don’t know where any of my awards are — I think they are at my mom’s house,” he told the Guardian in January. “I’m appreciative in the moment — I’m always shocked and surprised, which is why my speeches suck, because I never expect anything.”

‘Fashion and music — you can’t have one without the other’

While his music career skyrocketed, Williams was also one of the few black artists — such as Kanye West and the late Abloh — who broke into the fashion establishment.

“When you listen to yourself and you’re comfortable in who you are, you wear what you feel like fits and looks right on you,” he told GQ in 2019. “And that’s it.” He’s had this outlook since the start of his career; as the frontman of N.E.R.D two decades ago, he made waves by integrating elements of skateboarder-wear into hip-hop style.

As his career developed, so did his sartorial innovation. He has certainly been no stranger to an avant-garde look over the years: think the oversized Vivienne Westwood “Buffalo” hat he wore to the 2014 Grammy Awards, or the tuxedo paired with shorts and no socks he sported at the Academy Awards the same year.

Nor is Williams new to luxury brand collaborations, such as with Louis Vuitton. In 2007, he collaborated with then-Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs on a line of sunglasses, which were re-issued by Abloh in 2018.

His evolving style foreshadowed the trend towards gender-neutral clothing when he embraced womenswear designs by then-Céline creative director Phoebe Philo. He also became the first man to appear in a Chanel advert in 2017.

Williams has designed collaborations with Tiffany, as well as Chanel and Moncler, which will unveil a new Pharrell-branded collection this weekend in London. He also has a longstanding partnership with Adidas Originals and in 2020 launched a skincare line Humanrace.

Williams’s return to Louis Vuitton also marks a re-entry into menswear design. In 2005, he created influential streetwear brands such as Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream with the Japanese designer Nigo (who is the artistic director at Kenzo, which is also owned by LVMH).

Still, his appointment to the apex of luxury fashion highlights a shift in the fashion establishment towards the hands of celebrities and away from designers by profession. Rihanna, whose Fenty clothing line in partnership with LVMH closed in 2021, and Kanye West are only some of the other celebrities who have made similar inroads.

“Fashion and music is like time and space, you can’t have one without the other,” he said prosaically to the Financial Times in 2022. “You know, even Mozart was wearing something.”