When we hear the name Virgil Abloh, the mind takes us to the 2009 Paris Fashion Week. A young, inquisitive architect joined hands with rap’s biggest name Kanye West. The two joined forces with Louis Vuitton to produce sneakers. The day should be etched when streetwear penetrated the buildings of those luxury fashion ivory towers. And it marked the inception of Virgil’s relationship with LVMH’s Louis Vuitton.
Unfortunately, in November 2021, Abloh passed away two years after getting diagnosed with cardiac angiosarcoma. In 2020, before his death, Louis Vuitton appointed him to a top-tier executive position to look after 75 brands. He was the creative mind behind one of the successful streetwear brands Off-White. Born to parents, who were immigrants to Ghana, Virgil’s story is an eternal inspiration for anyone who looks at the fabric as a tool of identity and expression. Now that he is no more, Louis Vuitton has appointed a new creative leader.
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Pharrell Williams Is The New Creative Head At Louis Vuitton
LVMH is one of the biggest leading forces in the luxury world. Recently the CEO of the conglomerate Bernard Arnault became the richest person in the world. Louis Vuitton, the luxury fashion brand, is an important branch of the organization.
Virgil Abloh, the fashion tour de force spearheaded the men’s creative at the company, but after his demise, the position was vacant. Now, the brand has found its creative face in the Grammy-winner producer Pharrell Williams.
Williams is the right choice for the role. The late Virgil deemed him to be an inspiration. After his death, Virgil paid condolences and called him “a kind, generous, thoughtful, creative genius”. During the Paris show of Off-White, Pharrell was present to pay homage to him.
The CEO and chairman of Louis Vuitton Pietro Beccari released a statement saying, “I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and in 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new men’s creative director. His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter”. Pharrell will release his first collection in June 2023 at the Men’s Fashion Week in Paris.
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The Designer Considered Pharrell As An Inspiration In Fashion
Virgil’s fashion had a purpose, his fabrics had meaning, and the designs had an identity. Virgil Abloh propelled young Black designers to be in the industry providing mentorship to them. When ‘Black Lives Matter’ became an amplified movement, he started a Post-Modern Scholarship.
As a growing-up Black man in Chicago, he got attracted to skating, hip-hop, and DJing. He studied Civil Engineering and then architecture. Meeting the fellow Chicago-based rapper Kanye West.
He considered Pharrell a great inspiration. The multi-profession artist has been an important name in the fashion industry. Williams is an important celebrity collaboration with Adidas. He founded Billionaire Boys Club and Billionaire Girls Club.
In 2020, during an interview for ‘African American Art Shaping the 21st Century’, Virgil chose Williams’ N.E.R.D’s ‘In Search of’. He said, “As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, skateboarding and finding my own identity, it resonated with me more than hip-hop on its own. [It said] that it was fine to be in between. And I think that has described a whole generation of young black kids and artists who have since been determined to be themselves.”
Abloh admired Pharrell’s risk taking behavior. “The prototype at the time was that you had to be a thug or an athlete or a rapper. And then he came along with a different panache as a producer, an artist, a tastemaker, an individual. A lot of the freedom that exhibits in my practice is of that same sort of risk-taking”.
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