“His eyes are 3D. One is looking at spreadsheets and the other one is looking at culture. And when he blends them together, he gets this three-dimensional understanding of how the world is working and how it’s going to work. And we do that too: We have precognitive conversations.” So said Pharrell Williams (Louis Vuitton Men’s Creative Director) of Bernard Arnault (LVMH’s founder and CEO) to GQ last month.
This week that precognition is playing out as 2024’s edition of Art Basel Miami—and the wider Miami Art Week—opens for business. Since Arnault got on board with Miami-born developer Craig Robins 15 years ago, they have seen Magic City emerge as both a luxury hotspot and point of convergence for everyone from crypto whales to contemporary artists. Factor in Miami’s cultural intersection with Latin America, and the result is one of the US’s most dynamic and cosmopolitan urban hubs.
This collection was in part designed to ride that wave. Following his debut pre-fall mission to Hong Kong, Pharrell Williams steered the Volez, Voguez, Voyagez Miami-wards. Even without a show this season, the narrative was clearly defined. The first section was signified by the skyline and sunset backdrop, and framed around a notion of traveling by transatlantic liner from France to Florida. The beach-backdropped second part cut much looser, representing a day-to-night resort wardrobe for the LV man once disembarked.
Another focus of Williams’s precognition here seemed to be the upcoming exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style ”at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Williams, who is a co-chair of that show’s opening Met Gala, has made the sartorial space-taking that is dandyism a pillar of his practice since he landed at Vuitton. Here he pushed his trademark tailoring silhouette—cropped boxy jacket and kicky pants—across lush moire evening and day suiting with a dramatically and distinctly 1920s, flaneur-inflected twist. Double breasted kimono-sweaters and shawl collared robes made for a convincingly louche dandy’s alternative to fully constructed jackets in evening looks that came accessorized with pearl button details and an oyster-shaped clutch bag. Details were inspired by upholstery and included quilted leather, a new “denimbellish” fabrication, needle-punched flock monogram finishes, and a boat-themed “regatta” monogram. The season’s moire signature was extended to denim and a punchy green alcantara blouson.
Once docked, the collection shifted into a more irreverently playful Miami-facing mood. Highlights in LV’s pool-themed Paris showroom included the spectrum of bags in four aggressively complementary monogram colorways and a seasonal canvas jacquard featuring South Beach art deco hotels. A fluffy oversized ankle boot in monogram shearling with a footprint sole looked highly viral. A new single piece baseball cap shape named the Dad Hat was both amusingly ironic and unironically dad-centric (at least to this dad). An extended riff on hotel merch included some lush striped toweling beach bags and a truly ingenious zipper-contained fold-out beach towel. One of the most interesting fabrication themes of the season was in rattan, sometimes woven and sometimes pressed, that extended from dad hat and sun visor to backpack and beach slides. New ultra light leather slippers, soccer boot sneakers, rattan runners, and shiny jelly fisherman sandals were a few of the shoe proposals beyond that fluffy footprint boot. There was also a monogram life ring bag and a dolphin tote.
Workwear perennials were dressed up via an olive linen fabrication bonded with pearlescent rivets and featured damier leather detailing. Sets and robes in striped jacquard monogram and punchily-toned colorways made for perfect poolside peacock-wear. Nighttime highlights included a black chambray jacket with raffia detailing and a painstakingly casual closing bandana detail jacket patterned in a mosaic of hand placed sequins. Even for those without precognitive powers, Miami is always a good idea: and so it proved here.
