Ever since the passing of Virgil Abloh, the head menswear designer role he held at Louis Vuitton has been vacant. That may be changing soon, as the French luxury house is reportedly in talks with music superproducer Pharrell Williams to fill the position, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Virgil, who founded the streetwear brand Off-White in 2013 and worked heavily with Kanye West in the early ’10s, was the first African-American to be artistic director at a French luxury brand after joining Louis Vuitton in 2018. He was also a relatively successful DJ and cover art designer, marking the overlap in music and fashion.
Pharrell would offer a natural extension of that overlap; while he got his start in music as one-half of the superstar production duo The Neptunes, he went on to have a tremendous influence in the world of fashion thanks to his collaborations with brands like Adidas and Bape and his work with his own brands BBC and Ice Cream.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the company that runs Louis Vuitton (along with a bunch of other luxury brands, as you can probably tell by its title), is likely looking to take advantage of that cultural cachet, continuing what Abloh started in embracing streetwear and the two musicians’ more avant-garde approach to fashion.