Under the flags of Unesco and the LV monogram, Pharrell Williams revisits the colors of the world

Men’s Fashion Week, launched on June 18 in a bustling Paris, ended on Sunday. The first day of this seasonal event was marked by the second fashion show of Louis Vuitton’s men’s lines at the UNESCO Palace, under the artistic direction of Pharrell Williams who placed his collection under the sign of racial diversity and human unity.

Between the approach of the early legislative elections, at the end of June, and the deadline for the Olympic Games, on July 26, Paris is a disorderly party which still has to fit the events of the fashion calendar into its spaces under construction and its congested roads. From June 18 to 23, the men’s fashion shows for the summer 2025 collections were held before the launch of haute couture, from June 24 to 27. Opening the ball, singer-songwriter, artistic director, musician, stylist, rapper and producer Pharrell Williams presented Louis Vuitton men’s creations at the UNESCO Palace. The announcement, on February 14, 2023, of his appointment as men’s creative director of LV, a position left vacant for two years after the death of his predecessor Virgil Abloh in November 2021, had the effect of a thunderclap in the blue sky decor of the fashion planet. Louis Vuitton’s bet nevertheless proved to be a winning one. By entrusting this responsibility to an iconic creative, having never created clothes, the brand had sensed that the singer of the global hit Happy would add value to its desire factor and was not mistaken, as proven by the success of this third collection signed by Pharrell Williams.

In fact, only Pharrell Williams could afford to break the racial taboo with as much obviousness and elegance as he did for this LV summer 2025 men’s collection. Black models in black (“the blackest shade never created by Louis Vuitton,” indicated the manifesto), white models in white or beige, mixed race in brown… All skin colors had their place before a big multi-colored meeting for the finale. The universalist ideal previously celebrated by Benetton through “all the colors of the world” was taken here in its literal sense, under the flags of all nations fluttering in the Paris wind.

Appearance of Pharrell Williams during the Louis Vuitton men’s fashion show in Paris. Johanna Geron/Reuters

The parade called “The world is yours” also wanted to symbolize the union of friends of the brand from the four corners of the world. The LV parade, traditionally marked by headlining guests likely to provoke riots, was more discreet this year despite the presence of actor Omar Sy, ex-football international Didier Drogba, and Nigerian singer Burna Boy or the new basketball prodigy, Frenchman Victor Wembanyama.

Diplomat costumes with briefcases, hurried travelers with the look of pilots in XXL leather bombers with hoods, caps and glasses, silhouettes and accessories celebrated a generation of extremely mobile men. Coming from travel, the Louis Vuitton house was thus organically anchored in its DNA, introducing into the nomadism characteristic of our time the even broader dimension of the abolition of borders and human fraternity. A bias which is also expressed through the new checkerboard of the famous monogram canvas, in green and blue, the colors of the Earth. The dates of the shows having been brought closer together due to multiple deadlines in the Parisian calendar, several houses withdrew, including Olivier Roustaing for Balmain. This season will be marked by departures, notably that of Virginie Viard, the artistic director of Chanel, and Dries Van Noten who announced that he would show for the last time before his brand was withdrawn.