Pharrell Williams to run menswear design at Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton has appointed the musician Pharrell Williams to take over menswear design following the death of Virgil Abloh.

The luxury group, the main brand of Bernard Arnault’s LVMH, has been growing since the coronavirus pandemic, and is looking to secure its position as market leader.

The appointment of Williams, a Grammy music award winner, to lead design in menswear is the first significant move by Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s recently appointed chief executive, who previously led Dior. Williams will present his first clothing collection in Paris in June.

Williams takes over the position vacated by Abloh, who died in November 2021. Abloh was the first African-American man to head a big label at a European luxury house.

“I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2006 for Louis Vuitton . . . His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter,” Beccari said on the brand’s Instagram page.

LVMH has become the largest company in Europe by stock market capitalisation. Arnault, whose family controls the conglomerate, is now the world’s richest man after recently passing Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Williams’s appointment is a success for LVMH, which has begun to focus on influencers and artists, including a collaboration with the Japanese sculptor Yayoi Kusama. It will also facilitate the company’s access to the US music industry and streetwear sector on which Abloh had capitalised. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Williams has been close to Louis Vuitton’s new chief executive for some time, attending shows at Dior and collaborating with Beccari on jewellery in the 2010s.

The singer said last year he was also working with Tiffany, another LVMH-owned brand, following similar partnerships with Adidas and LVMH’s rival Chanel.

Williams first came to prominence as part of the music group The Neptunes in the 1990s, before becoming known for songs such as “Happy” and being a producer for singers such as Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake. He has won 13 Grammy awards and has two Oscar nominations, and has also worked in design and entrepreneurship.

Louis Vuitton became the world’s first $10bn luxury brand in 2018. The group has done well in the pandemic, despite the hit to the Chinese market because of President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy and a rise in cases at the end of last year. The company reported record profits for 2022 at the end of January.

The group includes brands such as Moët champagne and Cheval Blanc hotels. Arnault’s five children work for the group, and there is speculation over who will succeed him.

A reshuffle shifted Beccari into Louis Vuitton from his role as Dior’s chief executive, the group’s second-biggest label. That, in turn, was taken over by Arnault’s daughter Delphine.

Additional reporting by Leila Abboud in Paris