American musician, record producer and designer Pharrell Williams has been announced as Virgil Abloh’s successor as Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director, according to a statement issued by the French luxury fashion house on Tuesday.
The appointment is effective immediately and his first collection will debut in June during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris.
“I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new Men’s Creative Director,” said Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s chairman and CEO in a statement.
“His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter.”
The job had been vacant since Virgil Abloh’s death in November 2021.
The barrier-breaking Black designer whose ascent to the heights of the traditional luxury industry changed what was possible in fashion, died on Sunday in Chicago after a two-year battle with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer. He was 41.
His death was confirmed by his family.
The artistic director of Louis Vuitton men’s wear as well as the founder of his own brand, Off-White, Abloh was a prolific collaborator with outside brands from Nike to Evian, and a popular fashion theorist whose expansive and occasionally controversial approach to design inspired comparisons with everyone from Andy Warhol to Jeff Koons.
Abloh transformed not just what consumers wanted to wear, bridging hypebeast culture and the luxury world, but what brands wanted in a designer — and the meaning of “fashion” itself.