At Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams and Nigo Offer a Mature Take on Streetwear
“I never dreamt when I first met Nigo that this is what we would be doing together,” said Pharrell Williams, standing next to his longtime friend in the Louis Vuitton showroom in Paris on the day before his fall menswear show.
Two of the most influential tastemakers in streetwear, their collaboration stretches back decades, from the launch of their Billionaire Boys Club label to their first eyewear design for Vuitton in 2004, and ongoing projects such as Nigo’s Human Made brand and Williams’ Joopiter auction platform.
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Now they both sit at the top of the luxury pyramid, with plum positions at LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate. (Nigo, 54, took the helm of the Kenzo label in 2021, and Williams, 51, was named creative director of menswear at Vuitton in 2023.)
“I wake up every day and I know that I got a brother, and I know that I got somebody that’s just taught me so much and continues to just be there for me, and we’re there for each other,” Williams told WWD in a preview.
The collection they unveiled Tuesday in a mirrored box in a courtyard of the Louvre museum honored that history explicitly, through the circular set modeled after a clothing vault filled with archival designs, and implicitly, via a collection peppered with references and winks to the past.
While a cherry blossom pink varsity jacket and leopard-patterned jeans channeled the bubblegum aesthetic of Williams’ N.E.R.D. era, the overall feeling was of streetwear keeping pace with a more mature, sophisticated customer — though entering the show was as bruising as a mosh pit.
The camouflage patterns that were a signature of both Billionaire Boys Club and Nigo’s label A Bathing Ape, known as Bape, were reinterpreted as hybrid camo and leopard motifs that almost looked like flowers, some hand-embroidered with tiny sequins and beads.
Likewise, the varsity jackets that still form the backbone of their personal wardrobes were streamlined and tweaked with unusual details, like sleeves made from the natural undyed leather normally used for Vuitton’s handbags, designed to acquire a patina over time.
The two comperes employed rich textures and sophisticated details to dandify silhouettes that cross-referenced Williams’ reworking of Vuitton archetypes with Nigo’s archives of more than 10,000 rare pieces including workwear, streetwear and Japanese textiles.
Think a jacket made from crocodile leather embossed to look like denim, or a flared black suit with sculpted flower buttons. “The collection is a lot like our friendship. It’s not looking to be unnecessarily bold for attention. The attention is in the details,” Williams explained.
“Everything that we do is very considered, very measured, and there’s just this really great appreciation for the finer details, whether it’s a button or it’s a stitch, or it’s a pearl, or it is the amazing things that he brought to the table for us to look at and be inspired by — really amazing silhouettes that only G.O.A.T. eyes understand,” he added.
Nigo in turn likened it to a compilation of their greatest hits, but with superior materials and craftsmanship, including a plethora of Japanese techniques, like contrasting sashiko stitching on denim, boro repair-style patchworks, or jacquard suit fabrics inspired by kasuri weaving.
“This collection cannot have been done by myself or either Pharrell himself. This collection can be done because of our collaboration, because we’ve been supporting each other, like yin and yang energy,” he said through a translator. “I think this collection is the best collection that we’ve created.”
With luxury experiencing its worst slump in 15 years, Louis Vuitton is evidently seeking refuge in tried-and-tested designs, as evidenced by the reedition of its seminal collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
With this lineup, which stuck to well-trodden paths, it’s betting that the duo’s fans have aged alongside them and now have the budget to splash out on items like an ivory mink kimono jacket, or a pink Damoflage snow suit.
The lineup also featured an avalanche of bags that should appeal to newbies and seasoned collectors alike: from quilted shoppers and squishy trunks to jewel-colored satin keepalls with souvenir jacket embroideries; backpacks dangling lobster charms, and so-called Damier Phriendship bags printed with face profiles of the two men.
Shoes were almost cartoonishly large and included the new ButterSoft, a skate-inspired sneaker that is being launched in 50 colorways.
But at this stage of the game, the stakes are no longer pushing sartorial envelopes, as Williams once did with his oversized Buffalo hat and saucer-sized Jacob & Co. diamond pendants, but rather to keep the registers ringing. If nothing else, the collection served as a reminder that streetwear has become the new establishment.
“Look where street culture has brought us,” Williams marveled. “Street is where everything starts. It’s not the bottom of the food chain. It is the food chain.”
Launch Gallery: Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
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