Louis Vuitton picks hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams to head menswear designs

PARIS - Hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams is in talks to take over as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton, media reports said on Tuesday (Feb 14).

Williams would fill the spot left vacant since the death of Virgil Abloh from cancer in November 2021, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Le Figaro.

They cited sources with knowledge of the talks, but Louis Vuitton's parent company LVMH has yet to confirm the news.

The 49-year-old is an established superstar in the music world, with 13 Grammys and two Oscar nominations, and he has been a fixture in the front row of fashion shows for many years.

Louis Vuitton's sales have soared since the pandemic, with the company now worth more than US$20 billion (S$27 billion) - helping to turn the owner of its parent company LVMH, Bernard Arnault, into the world's richest person.

The French brand had been happy to keep coasting on the hype generated by Abloh's three-year tenure, using his team and guest designers for recent shows.

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Last month, it put on one of the most talked-about shows of menswear week in Paris with a performance by popstar Rosalia and overseen by a collective of strongly hyped young designers.

Williams, who came to fame in the 1990s as part of hip-hop group The Neptunes, was not often mentioned in the rumours around the succession, but would fit perfectly with the label's recent moves to attract a younger streetwear-focused audience.

He has teamed with many fashion brands for individual lines, including Diesel, Chanel, Moncler and Adidas.

He partnered with Louis Vuitton in 2008 under then-creative director Marc Jacobs for a jewellery and sunglasses line.