Pharrell Williams

Louis Vuitton hired Pharrell Tapped to leads its menswear division, Christie's invested in an Australian art finance firm, and more global art news.

[[Financial Review]](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f819810478326e630af25aade00c0f2686e0ee8360ad0e2f01e49b0196a9a936fa53de2f8343667f71ddaab048e23898b5b7fe6fb) So I’m pretty excited about it.” [[NYT]](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f81981047d0bd5f19ba66420722b2920b133ede1486b21962abc80a47f64076d82aaa2ae125317a7337004bd8ef2e126fe9d93def) [Art Money](https://www.artnews.com/t/art-money/). [offer about 40 works from his collection](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f8198104774609213dba7442c863f0cb66f537391841c6a090ed437ab1bd6aae84cc3cb68d357ade5be5f404701f36bcd18ab04bc) next month in a dedicated auction at Christie’s, the New York Times reports. [Louis Vuitton](https://www.artnews.com/t/louis-vuitton/) has tapped the musician and entrepreneur [Pharrell Williams](https://www.artnews.com/t/pharrell-williams/) to be the [creative director of its menswear division](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f819810475a2efd08c5708be00a1d92913c3a6d51d13871d081a96a1a7dba563e2d032b82954bd3bca090490ce18464d98bf927b3), WWD reports. Board members at the National Gallery of Ireland had reservations about paying €1.5 million (about $1.61 million) for a 1915 street scene by Jack Butler Yeats it acquired, according to meeting minutes. Mike Nelson, the British maestro of almost impossibly elaborate immersive installations, will soon open a survey at the Hayward Gallery in London. Sharing the news of the “Happy” singer’s Vuitton appointment [on Instagram](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f81981047f92a253f0fdd17dbb2de58a98d37244b5ae2ced3bd8dbdec4663e60ab721e8717edcf60896fd021f5cafcf918c182b01), Murakami wrote, “Bravo!” The Rhode Island School of Design said that it will no longer participate in the closely watched annual rankings of colleges and universities by U.S. Williams fills a position left vacant when Virgil Abloh [died in late 2020](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f819810475b56a709157f37c22c22eadc34147356ef91c6cedad97adb724a448ee788e8bfb79184c81fcf377517e41f1707363556), at the age of 41. [apologized for the incident](https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=6a97382f8198104790f575f123bf048d63349d661f0c75423566f0928a9e2ae34321e894a17d476e9a4c1e144ef3ee024bcd58e0ef872a32), the Associated Press reports. “In retrospect, I am clearly aware that this was a disgraceful act in the heat of the moment and an overreaction,” he said, apologizing “first and foremost” to the critic, Wiebke Huester .

The French luxury fashion brand announced when Williams' first collection will be revealed.

"The way in which he breaks boundaries across the various worlds he explores aligns with Louis Vuitton's status as a Cultural Maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit and entrepreneurship." His only other post His music has also earned him Academy Award and Emmy nominations.

The singer, producer and designer has a long history of working with fashion brands — as well as big shoes to fill. Williams' first Louis Vuitton collection ...

"When you listen to yourself and you're comfortable in who you are, you wear what you feel like fits and looks right on you," he added. "And he helped open doors to a wider cast of creatives, engaging directly with his followers, online and off, and offering them 'cheat codes' and 'trails of information' for how to launch brands of their own." [artistic director of Kenzo](https://www.lvmh.com/news-documents/news/nigo-named-artistic-director-of-maison-kenzo/), which is also owned by LVMH). He broke boundaries himself as one of few Black designers leading a luxury fashion house and worked to pave the way for others after him. And he's also [launched Humanrace](https://www.google.com/search?q=pharrel+humanrace&rlz=1C1GCEJ_enUS1023US1023&oq=pharrel+humanrace&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i10i512l2j0i10i22i30j0i390l3.2301j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), a skincare and wellness company. "Everything Virgil stood for [was] to open doors," one user wrote. "His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter." [GQ notes](https://www.gq.com/story/louis-vuitton-pharrell-williams) that he's been a style icon throughout his career, from mixing skateboarder-wear with hip-hop style as the frontman of N.E.R.D in the early 2000s to embracing womenswear and gender-neutral clothing in recent years. He's also worked with Moncler, Adidas Originals and Tiffany & Company. [grew the role](https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/virgil-abloh-i-am-not-a-designer/) from "designer" to "curator," the AP reports, expanding his interests into things like housewares, jewelry and architecture. [the first man](https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-wwd-pharrell-williams-chanel-handbags-ads-20170310-story.html) to appear in a Chanel ad) and a unisex clothing collection with Karl Lagerfeld in 2019. [listed at more than double their original price](https://wwd.com/pop-culture/culture-news/pharrell-millionaire-louis-vuitton-spike-search-interest-1235527393/) on resale sites, and Abloh — a friend of Williams — reissued the line in 2018.

The 'Happy' hitmaker is taking the reins at the French fashion house after the death of its former designer Virgil Abloh died aged 41 in November 2021 following ...

The 'Happy' hitmaker is taking the reins at the French fashion house after the death of its former designer Virgil Abloh died aged 41 in November 2021 following ...

It is instructive that neither Abloh and Williams allowed such funneling to define their career trajectories, and laudatory that Louis Vuitton has not been ...

o Williams is an ecosystem builder: Somewhere along the way, Pharell Williams admitted that while he, alone, wrote the song, it was the thousands of collaborators, who made it theirs, that made the song such a success; “Happy” is as much the success of the people who are joyously dancing in the video, as it is the author’s. Not such a bad outcome for a fashion house seeking to be innovative and successful in the marketplace. [Vogue has referred to Pharrell Williams](https://www.vogue.com/article/pharrell-williams-named-louis-vuitton-mens-creative-director) as a “multi-hyphenate musician and entrepreneur” and that “multi-hyphenate” tells it all. Mary Kaye Schilling, of Fast Company, suggested that the result is that a secret of Williams’ innovative success is that he “a All of this fits-in with an underlying awareness of Williams’ that “If anything, I've learned that [I'm not in control](https://www.npr.org/about-npr/452953953/transcript-pharrell-williams-in-conversation-with-nyu-tisch-npr-music). He exemplifies what we hope for in an innovative leader, not only for fashion, but for every industry. we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and really at the end of the day it's the fans that make that determination.” So, inviting fans in to interpret the song as they feel it, made abundant sense, and made the whole effect of the video, and ultimately the song, as well, so much better. An even bigger experiment, however, was the eleven-day making of [the twenty-four hour “Happy” video](https://www.fastcompany.com/3022066/how-pharrell-and-a-cast-of-hundreds-got-happy-for-a-24-hour-interactive-video), featuring 400 people, some random, some not, lip-syncing and dancing four-minute versions of the title song. o Pharrell is not entirely an outsider either: If Williams is not a fashion-insider, neither is he really an outsider. [His best-known musical hit is the song “Happy,”](https://youtu.be/ZbZSe6N_BXs) which he wrote for the movie Despicable Me 2. This is a good example of hiring talent for what they have done, rather than where they did it. o Pharrell isn’t an insider to the fashion industry: Remember, disruption always starts at the edges.

Pharrell Williams is taking over the role of creative director for menswear at Louis Vuitton, taking the position held by Virgil Abloh until his death in ...

[two-time Oscar nominee's](https://www.foxnews.com/category/entertainment/events/oscars) first collection will be shown later this year during men's fashion week in Paris in June, according to a statement released by the company. He had a massively popular sneaker collaboration with Chanel in 2017 and a unisex clothing collection in 2019 that he designed with Lagerfeld. "I think everyone is interested in what they put on, even if you dress conservatively." Others hailed him as his generation’s Lagerfeld, Chanel's longtime creative director who died in 2019. Abloh's ubiquitous, consumer-friendly presence in culture was wide-ranging and dynamic. Abloh was a groundbreaking designer and tastemaker known for merging streetwear and high fashion.

The singer and producer, most known for his self-titled music career, will be taking over the coveted position at Louis Vuitton and debut his first ...

His new appointment is effective immediately. He also worked with Louis Vuitton in 2004 and 2008 on limited-run collaborations. Abloh is best known for his own label, OFF WHITE.

The multi-hyphenate musician's appointment at Louis Vuitton shows the all-conquering power of celebrity.

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Louis Vuitton's decision to hire Pharrell Williams as the new creative director for its menswear line reaffirms the allure of celebrity within fashion's ...

The shift has taken a bit of the magic out of fashion. Despite fashion’s commitment to chasing innovation, it has a habit of settling for more of the same. He looks the part of a man who seems to be in touch with a rising generation of consumers. Although that remains true at smaller entities and in a few rarefied spaces, in larger companies, there are a fleet of designers working on a multitude of divisions. Williams is someone who has a sense of what’s bubbling up from the culture. Williams is known for his wide-ranging interests and his ability to straddle a multitude of worlds. He dresses the same way a producer might put together a song: freely sampling, always riffing and trying to keep the vibe not just of the moment but also beyond it. It went outside its ateliers and even beyond the realm of designers. Other stylish celebrities who had dismal showings in the fashion industry include Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé. It also serves as another blow to the belief that fashion design is a skill and not merely an attitude. The choice of Williams is not. He was sitting in the spotlight wearing diamond bedazzled sunglasses and Chanel jackets.

Williams' appointment makes him the second Black artistic director at Louis Vuitton, following the passing of iconic designer Virgil Abloh.

Williams joins Black fashion designer elites including Olivier Rousteing, who is the creative director of Balmain and Ozwald Boateng, who was the designer for Givenchy menswear from 2003 to 2007. In 2022 the company saw global sales of luxury fashion and leather goods increase 22% helping bring its full year revenue up to When LVMH appointed Abloh it was a reflection of the increasing consumer-driven intermingling of the luxury and street wear sectors, according to a study by Bain & Company. Or can he diversify the business of fashion from within? Hip-hop producer and singer Pharrell Williams is set to take over the menswear reins at global fashion house, Louis Vuitton. [Black artistic director at Louis Vuitton](https://www.instagram.com/p/CopvowFN3vQ/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=0c595f99-a4f8-4020-9027-eac1007c81b7), following the passing of iconic designer and Off-White Founder, Virgil Abloh.