For Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection, Pharrell Williams looked into the American Western aesthetic for inspiration
Pharrell Williams’s third collection for Louis Vuitton brought him back to Paris for what was the first official show of Paris Fashion Week’s Fall/Winter 2024 calendar. The show and collection clearly signified that Williams has truly put down his roots as Men’s Creative Director of the storied maison. And at the same time, it also became clear that he is shifting Louis Vuitton’s aesthetic closer to his own.
Continuing the LVERS theme which featured heavily in his previous body of work, Williams brings Virginia to Paris. Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection explores the origins of the American Western wardrobe, with a deserted Virginian mountain range as the show’s backdrop. Williams is an avid storyteller and there’s no doubting his showmanship. Further buoyed by solid direction and Louis Vuitton’s famed savoir-faire, the resulting runway show was nothing short of remarkable. The collection itself features two themes: One focuses on American Western workwear and the other on tailoring.
The First Cowboy theme, honoring American Western workwear, highlights denim with pearl-and-and-sequin floral embroidery, gunmetal wash or Western floral prints. Chaps in denim or fringed leather showcase Monogram and floral details while leather jackets and trousers mimic saddle embossing. Plaid blends with Damier in Buffalo Check are seen on coats, jackets and shirts. Blanket coats and gilets display a cowboy Monogram, pyjamas are crafted in cowboy lace and a tweed jacket has a ‘horsetooth’ pattern. Original cowboy paintings become jacquard tapestry for raincoats, dry canvases for a rope-embroidered jacket or prints on garments aged like they’ve weathered under the prairie sun.
The tradition of dressing up in the American Dandy theme is approached through a country lens, with suits and shirts chain-stitched with cacti, bucrania and bolos of Western imagery. Workwear silhouettes are transformed into tailoring in vaquero jackets with hand-embroidered metallic cuivre florals, work jackets with multi-colour sunbeam beading, and suits with pinstripes or Damier chequers created through metal-studding or turquoise embellishment. Dungarees—the crown jewel of workwear—are celebrated in fine tailoring. Western shirts amplify the yokes, rivets and floral embroideries inherent to the genre, while others appear in cowboy Monogram jacquard, cowboy lace, Western prints or garlanded with soutache embroidery on chambray.
Focusing on the American Western theme, the collection joins forces with artists from the Dakota and Lakota nations, influencing accessories, as well as the show’s staging and even the soundtrack. The collaboration extended to Speedy, messenger and travel bags embroidered with the Dakota Flower. In line with the American workwear style, the collection also sees a collaboration with Timberland, the American outdoor footwear brand. A series of its classic industrial boots is presented in wheat-colored or black waterproof scrivante nubuck, lightly debossed with the maison’s Monogram on the back of the tongue.
Williams really though it all through: From cowboy hats to leather caps and gloves adorned with buckles and gems that emoby the prairie dandy, the collection’s presentation also featured performers from the Native Voices of Resistance. In total, 80 looks were presented that night in Paris. And for a brief moment, we were living the wild, wild (but stylish) west.
