Pharrell Williams to set the stage for Louis Vuitton at Paris Men's Fashion Week

Louis Vuitton will unveil its first menswear collection under newly appointed creative director Pharrell Williams. The brand will inaugurate the upcoming men's fashion week in Paris, which is scheduled from June 20 to 25.

The next edition will feature a slightly higher number of shows compared to last year, with 42 fashion shows in total, while the presentations remain fixed at 38, according to the provisional schedule released by Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM).

Louis Vuitton will present its show three days earlier than usual, as the brand gears up for a new era with the highly anticipated debut of Williams following the passing of Virgil Abloh in November 2021. Over the past two years, Louis Vuitton refrained from appointing a specific stylist, instead entrusting its internal team with designing the collections. Colm Dillane of KidSuper served as a co-designer for the fall/winter 2023-24 men's collection last January.

On Wednesday designers such as Botter, Lemaire, Bluemarble, and Wales Bonner will take the stage, while Thursday will feature shows by Issey Miyake, Rick Owens, Amiri, Yohji Yamamoto, Dries Van Noten, and Ami. The third and fourth day will see Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garçons, Dior Homme, Kenzo, Loewe, Paul Smith and Hermès present their collections. Noteworthy presentations include Acne Studios, Courrèges, Berluti, and Rhude.

Burç Akyol, a finalist for the LVMH Prize, is new to this season's runway calendar. As is Nigerian design label Lagos Space Programme, winner of this year’s Woolmark Prize and an LVMH Prize semi-finalist, who will host a presentation.

Paris fashion week will conclude with Sacai, Wooyoungmi and designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin presenting his eponymous gender fluid brand. It will be his first collection since stepping down as creative director of Ann Demeulemeester.

Notably absent from this edition are Celine and Saint Laurent, with the latter heading to Berlin to show at the contemporary art museum Neue Nationalgalerie on June 12th.