For those who couldn’t be in France for Pharrell Williams’s debut with Louis Vuitton as men’s creative director last June, Paris has traveled stateside. Pop-ups in New York and Los Angeles, opening today, feature miniatures of Parisian street lamps and the city’s sprawling architecture. Mannequins imitating the models’ struts down the runway are scattered throughout the spaces, dressed in the designer’s first collection, including an offering of checkerboard denim and his Henry Taylor collaboration.
Located in New York’s Soho and Los Angeles’s West Hollywood, the spaces join 48 other reimagined stores and pop-ups dedicated to the brand’s new vision under Williams, open through mid-March. The storefronts are designed to evoke the Pont Neuf, the Spring/Summer 2024 runway show‘s location, chosen as a symbolic bridge between Paris and Williams hometown of Virginia Beach. In the boutiques, towering gold crown molding echoes the colossal structure.
On each coast, an array of Speedy bags on display are reserved for appointment-only shoppers who are able to eke them out. The cross-body accessories, a 1930 invention reinterpreted by Williams for men in a soft leather, are tucked in a room behind a bookshelf in LA.
There, the bags rest under individual spotlights on a series of pedestals with footage of their runway debut playing in the background. Over on the East Coast, New York shoppers must head around the corner to a separate storefront. It’s been transformed into a miniature Parisian city block, and through a secret doorway hidden behind one of the buildings, the shopping begins.
Elsewhere at locations around the globe, life-size holograms of the runway looks are on display and minicarts overflow with giant cubes and LV trunks. The brand promises exclusive events, including DJ residencies and culinary pop-ups, are set to roll out for clients. These activations and spaces represent a physical embodiment of Williams’s new “LVERS philosophy,” a diverse, global community joined by an appreciation for the house’s core values and craftsmanship.
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