Pharrell Williams has always exhibited a sort of fascination with the human race. ‘Human Race’ is, after all, the name of his Adidas collaboration and his beauty label. But for Louis Vuitton’s Spring Summer 2025 — his third creative-directed collection — Pharrell chooses to focus less on the ‘human race’ and more on ‘humankind’, with emphasis on the word ‘kind’.
Kindness has not been a topic too deeply explored by the world of fashion, but it is a ubiquitous one — one with the propensity to impact a political climate or simply make another person’s day. It is something that has been innate within us since childhood, and yet something that seems to have been lost along the way. This is perhaps why Pharrell has selected to open the show with Swiss curator and art critic Simon Njami preaching to the next generation. “The world is yours,” he tells them. United in a message of peace and held at the rooftop of the UNESCO House, the collection thus unfolds with universalism first; and in a way so universal, that it can be understood even by a child.
And so begins the journey into kindness. Where diversity has been a term tossed around by countless other brands in the name of marketing and woke-isms, Pharrell explores it through a wide spectrum of skin tones comprising the clothes. Shades of neutrals — from the palest of beiges to the deepest of blacks (as developed by the atelier) — may at first glance appear plain. But Louis Vuitton has exalted each and every hue with tonal savoir-faire detailing in the form of embellishments and the house’s new Damoflage signature. Bags are also reinvented with a new skin-like supple quality, as the maison introduces a new soft leather goods line that reinvents heritage makes like the Alma, the Christopher and the Neverfull into new super-soft leather iterations.
Togetherness comes around again with the accessories. Along with the new supple leather remakes, are archival reinventions: the Danube, the Nile, the Amazon and Bastille get relaunched this season, making for a rich line-up of It bag potentials. And in the case where the concept of Louis Vuitton’s global mentality was missed, Pharrell spells it out plainly: with a cartography print applied in scarves and the Damoflage, and with bags toned in ocean-blue and earth-green. Travel references also surface via the clothes. Aviator jackets, flight suits and other frequent-flyer archetypes pave the way for the house’s collaboration with Air Afrique, an organisation with the vision of spotlighting Afro-diasporic arts and knowledge.
It is another exercise of Pharrell’s ability to have cultural conversations. The creative director’s passion for universality and inclusion was merely teased at Pont Neuf last year. But as the models circled the gargantuan globe of the UNESCO House and began holding hands, it became apparent that no words — by that, we mean fanciful slogan tees — are needed to explain the kind of kindness Louis Vuitton hopes to achieve, one garment and trunk at a time.
