Inside Pharrell Williams’ Blowout Western Themed Show for Louis Vuitton
It’s a location that looks like a movie set from classic Westerns: For his third Louis Vuitton Men’s presentation, Pharrell Williams staged the French brand’s Fall Winter 2024 runway show at the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne, just behind the fashion label’s headquarters.
In a show called “Paris, Virginia” — Williams was born in Virginia — models playied the part of cowboys parading in front of a huge screen where the striking scenery of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, those of Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico was projected. At one point, snow even fell on the guests in the room.
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Previewing the runway show during Paris Fashion Week was a short film created by Bafic with Ron Husband — one of the world’s most influential cartoonists on the Walt Disney Animation Studios production team (The Lion King, The Little Mermaid) — filmed while drawing a sketch of a cowboy.
The fashion looks that were presented resemble those of Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in Fred Zinnermann’s High Noon or Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, or more recently, those of Kevin Costner in Yellowstone.
In focusing on the Wild West, the musician/designer reinvented the cowboy aesthetic, adding the brand’s cult and glam motifs such as the Damier checkerboard pattern and the LV symbol, reinterpreted in a Buffalo Check and Monogram Cowboy key.
The fashion presentation alternated leather suits with fringes and gemstone appliqués, blanket coats in pure North American Native American style and jackets aged as if they were burned in the prairie sun, and denim shirts with lace embroidery.
All accompanied by the live performance by Native Voices of Resistance, a group composed of singers from indigenous communities in North America, and four original songs composed for the occasion by Williams with the participation of Miley Cyrus and Mumford & Sons.
Also new for the French brand is the partnership with Timberland, which unveiled footwear in three logo versions that are sure to be snapped up by the brand’s aficionados, starting with LV Texan, the ankle boot created thanks to the original expertise of the Goodyear tire brand. Parfleche blankets and “Dakota Flower” scarves, as well as some “It” bags, are made in collaboration with artists and artisans from Native American tribes.
In the front row, applauding Williams’ work, was a very elegantly dressed Bradley Cooper, ambassador of the fashion label. Other guests were Carey Mulligan, Lakeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Andrew Scott, supermodel Karlie Kloss, sports legends LeBron James and Venus Williams, soccer player Marco Verratti and Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, both pillars of the Italian national team.
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