It’s not often that the Centre Pompidou forecourt in the heart of Paris becomes the setting for a fashion show. We remember a Stella McCartney show in October 2022, which took place there, but in living memory, no other brand has dared to privatize the place for several days. That was without counting on the determination of Pharrell Williams, who has been overseeing Louis Vuitton’s men’s collections since early 2023. Since his arrival at the head of the French maletier, the American artist has been accustomed to transforming places under his aegis, with the Pont-Neuf covered in gold, the Fondation Louis Vuitton transformed into the Wild West, or the UNESCO esplanade covered in grass.
This time, however, Pharrell Williams chose to set up shop in front of the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement to launch this summer’s session of Paris Fashion Week. This week, the brands unveil their Spring-Summer 2026 collections, which will set the trends for the coming year, and Louis Vuitton is the usual headliner for this first day of shows. Today marks Pharrell’s sixth runway show for the luxury label, and in just over three years, it’s an understatement to say that the Vuitton man is now his own. The proof was last Friday, when the brand welcomed us to its studio near Pont-Neuf to unveil a preview of its new wardrobe. Between two fittings with the models, the design team explained the inspirations behind this summer wardrobe for 2026. “Pharrell was inspired by a trip to India he took in 2018, which served as a common thread for us,” explains the men’s ready-to-wear manager. We all went back together with the studio to explore cities like Delhi and Mumbai and get inspired by the way people dress through colors and shapes.” On the catwalk, the aim was clearly not to be literal in the approach to design, but to capture the spirit of “the different Indias” the team encountered.
Since his early days, the American designer has worked hard to redefine the Vuitton man, giving rise to the idea of a new, modern-day dandy. Particularly prominent in his Autumn-Winter 2025-2026 wardrobe presented last January, this image lives on through this new collection. “P is very attached to this idea; it’s part of his DNA,” explains the studio. “Every season, the aim is to maintain this vision with something very chic and luxurious in the Louis Vuitton way, but filtered through his own language.” Pharrell’s creative vocabulary tends to become clearer with each new creation: flared bootcut pants, puffy jackets, wrap-around coats and supple suits, all inspired by a cross between workwear and tailoring. This lexicon is filtered through Indian inspirations in cuts and colors, as well as in details that nod to Hindu culture. “There are many shades of the same color, which we drew directly from the indigo, red, green or beige pigments we discovered on site,” explains the design team.
Always true to his neo-dandy aesthetic, Pharrell Williams also references tailoring codes, with lots of striped shirts worn under suits as short as they are long, worn sometimes with formal shoes like square-toed loafers, and sometimes with the LV Flip, a thick-soled flip-flop. “We had fun reinterpreting proportions to create different silhouettes,” says the footwear manager. Once the shape is determined, all that’s left is to have fun with the iterations.” He also explains, “We have a very large range of sneakers at Louis Vuitton, and this time we wanted to develop more formal shoes too, but with a twist like the moccasin or derby.” The shoes even borrowed from the trekking boots worn by mountain guides in India. Outdoor references are also present in clothing, with technical jackets, fleece down jackets and nylon pants. Throughout the collection, Indian culture is distilled, right down to the design of the show space. The space was modeled on the Hindu board game “Snakes and Ladders”, invented in the 2nd century and played with dice, a nod to the show’s invitation, which featured four dice in a leather keyring.
But India wasn’t the only inspiration for this collection. Pharrell also delved into Vuitton’s archives, bringing out a cult film by a certain Wes Anderson. In The Darjeeling Limited, coincidentally set in India, the characters wear Louis Vuitton suitcases topped with a print of jungle animals. Never commercialized, this luggage is given a second life in this collection, while also being distilled onto certain garments, including the denim ensembles worn by Pharrell’s family seated in the front row. Plastered on coats, suits, trunks and even shorts, the pattern will undoubtedly be everywhere next summer. “When Pharrell took a tour of the archives on his arrival, he loved this luggage and told us ‘If I ever do a show about India, we’ll work with this’,” says the studio. Alongside these pieces, which we can already imagine to be cult favorites, a number of bags and other trunks accompany the 75 silhouettes in the show, some of which feature color gradations taken from Indian pigmentations.
Throughout the collection, Louis Vuitton’s designers explain that the main objective is to convey a relaxed, almost nonchalant allure. “There’s something a little off with elements that can be interchanged and worn as a mix and match,” says the ready-to-wear manager. There’s something extremely charming about this attitude, with pieces that are worn often, that are worked on with the body and that live over time.” A principle also applied to other product categories, such as the jewelry in this collection, which gives the impression of having been worn down by the vagaries of daily life. Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton codes are thus respected to the letter, and it’s as if the designer had flown to India with his wardrobe to have it embellished by the customs of this country of 1.4 billion inhabitants. A particularly effective synergy and “more natural, less bling”, explains his team of designers, enabling this wardrobe, in which the LV logo is more discreet, to be without doubt the most mature and accomplished of Pharrell Williams’ proposals. A collection that also seems to have convinced Beyoncé and Jay-Z, currently on tour in France, who made the trip to applaud Pharrell Williams’ work. It’s hard to beat that.
via gqmagazine.fr