Pharrell Williams presents a fashion show created with Nigo

When in doubt, you have to collaborate, which Pharrell Williams did during his latest show Tuesday in Paris for Louis Vuitton, where he teamed up with his longtime friend Nigo.

They are such old friends that the American musician had already worked with the Japanese designer 20 years ago, collaborating on the LV Millionaires 1.0 sunglasses. The two men were so seduced by each other's creativity that they put their double silhouette on the entire collection. Pharrell Williams with his fitted Mountie hat and Nigo on a baseball cap, on thin ties, Damier printed bags or baseball jackets.
Pharrell Williams presented the collection in a huge circular set, based on the petal flower shape of the Vuitton monogram. The arrival of the Pont Neuf orchestra of 30 musicians, composed of brass and strings, marked the launch of the show, which began with a magnificent composition – One Winged Angel by Nobuo Uematsu – It all ends with another collaboration, called LV Bag, with Don Toliver and j-hope.

“It’s the artistic manifestation of a lifelong friendship,” Pharrell said in his show note, adding that one of the main influences was Nigo’s “extensive archive on the workwear of the 20th century”. However, this concerns clothing workwear the most luxurious: the Donkey jackets are embroidered with pearls, the truckers' jerkins are in cowhide leather and the “delivery men” hoodies are in a patchwork of intarsia monograms. Half a dozen “delivery men” were pushing huge trunks onto the podium.
Designed by Masamichi Katayama's Wonderwall design firm, the decor featured display cases, built like huge hands on a clock face, displaying objects from Vuitton's archives.
This obsession was also evident on the runway, with several revivals of Stephen Sprouse's famous 2001 monogram graffiti seen on new tote bags and biker jackets.
There were certainly a lot of beautiful pieces on this show, but perhaps not as much enthusiasm for fashion. You can't help but admire Pharrell's energy and eye, even if you think his design skills never quite matched his musical genius.
The duo bowed at length to a particularly prestigious Vuitton front row, led by the brand's boss, Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH. The latter, although he attended Trump's inauguration with other billionaires on Monday, took the plane to attend this parade organized by another American.

The luxury boss was accompanied by Adrian Brody and his partner Georgina Chapman, Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina. Adrian Brody has been making the rounds of the European menswear season, riding high on the success of his new film, The Brutalist, one of whose producers is Ralph Lauren's son Andrew. Adrian Brody showed up at Prada in Milan last weekend, and sat alongside Matt Smith, who now sports a mohawk hairstyle, at Armani.
Also present at LV were Bradley Cooper and Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs basketball star who is certainly the tallest man ever seen in a French fashion show. He wisely chose the biggest luxury brand for his latest introduction to Parisian fashion.