Pharrell Williams named as LVMH’s next menswear designer

The Future. Louis Vuitton has hired Pharrell Williams to succeed Virgil Abloh as creative director of the brand’s menswear department. The appointment — which capitalizes on Williams’ celebrity as a musician — is a departure from typical industry practices, and might bring celebrities further into the fold of fashion companies if it’s successful.

Deets of the duds
While Williams is a nontraditional candidate for the role, he still has a long history with the fashion industry.

• In the past 20 years, Williams has collaborated with many designers and brands, including Nigo, Diesel, CHANEL, Moncler, and adidas, with whom he has a co-branded line of shoes and clothing.

• Williams also collaborated with LV back in the early aughts, and he was close friends with Abloh.

• In November, he launched Joopiter, a platform where fans could buy pieces from his personal collection.

• Williams received the CFDA Fashion Icon Award in 2015.

Pharrell’s first collection of designs will be showcased this June.

Major come ups
LVMH (Louis Vuitton’s parent company) recently hit a growth spurt and snagged the largest stock market valuation in Europe, doubling its 2018 $10 billion valuation in just four years to become the largest luxury brand in the world.

Another recent trend: LVMH has partnered more often with major musicians, including Rihanna. It’s hard to say whether these musicians are directly responsible for LVMH’s success, but whatever they’re doing, they should probably keep doing it.

Ivy Park misses the retail mark

The Future. While the Beyhive is splurging on Renaissance World Tour tickets, they’re not buying Ivy Park merch. Sales for the clothing brand were projected to reach $250 million in 2022 but only hit $40 million, raising questions about its future with Adidas. If one of the world’s most successful artists can sell out of concert tickets but not exclusive drip, it’s possible that fans would rather invest in experiences than material things amid economic uncertainty.

Promising apparel
The WSJ examines the growth and decay of Queen B’s streetwear line.

• Beyoncé debuted Ivy Park with Philip Green (the UK retailer who used to own Topshop) in 2016 and bought full brand ownership in 2018.

• Adidas announced its collaboration with Beyoncé in 2019, as it tried to diversify its portfolio with women and replicate its success with Kanye West.

Poison ivy?
As Adidas expected hundreds of millions of dollars in Ivy Park sales, it promised Beyoncé creative control of the line — and a guaranteed annual fee of around $20 million.

• But Beyoncé and Adidas have clashed over how to label and market the line, with Adidas pushing for more of its own branding, according to sources familiar with the issue.

• This friction might have hurt Ivy Park sales, as almost half the merch didn’t sell in five of the last six releases.

• Ivy Park sales are projected to reach $65 million in 2023 — an improvement from last year but still a major drop from a previous target of $335 million.

So, what happens next? Will Beyoncé set up shop somewhere else? Or will she sunset Ivy Park?

Fast fashion’s four-letter word

The Future. The Internet’s mania for “core” – the suffix used to describe any style – may have reached its apex in 2022 thanks to TikTok’s For You page, where thousands of microtrends emerge out of nowhere (and disappear just as quickly) due to consumers’ short attention spans. As anything is fair game for the suffix, it’ll be hard to keep up with every microtrend, forcing consumers to drop the core and lean into their own personal styles.

Unconscious consumption

Fast fashion companies like Shein — one of the most-Googled clothing brands in the world and valued at $100 billion — capitalize on the “cores” of the viral moment by mass-producing designs often with unethical practices, according to Hypebeast.

• Shein has earned a bad rep for allegedly stealing from independent designers and failing to pay its employees fairly.
• It operates “numerous informal workshops [that have] no emergency exits and [come] with barred windows that would have fatal implications in the event of a fire,” reports Public Eye.
• It churns out 700 to 1,000 new styles every day, reportedly leading to the expulsion of 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The algorithm doesn’t know us better than we know ourselves
While people will always love wearing the “It” clothing item, they likely won’t be able to buy into every core – which isn’t only unsustainable and expensive but also chaotic like Portia’s wardrobe in The White Lotus. In an interesting plot twist, Gen Z consumers are rebelling against the core cycle as much as they’re driving it, according to The 2023 Instagram Trend Report.

• More than 50% of Zoomers plan to DIY their clothes next year, citing sustainability as a key reason.
• More than 25% of Gen Z consumers plan to thrift their clothes in 2023, especially when items are out of their price range.

The bottom line
The fast fashion machine won’t stop in 2023. But core fatigue might just motivate people to embrace their individualism next year… no matter how shameless it may be.

Shannon Abloh continues designing Virgil’s legacy

The Future. Shannon Abloh, the widow of renowned designer Virgil Abloh, is outlining all the ways she plans on making his memory and work live on for decades. With his hands in brands such as Nike, Louis Vuitton, Off-White, and so many others, Abloh’s creations may still revolutionize fashion and design — thanks to Ms. Abloh’s curation.

Eternal reach
Shannon Abloh breaks down to NYT how she’s picking up Virgil’s mantle.

• She’s bringing all of his creative ventures — including his London-based creative studio Alaska Alaska and a joint venture with Nike called Architecture — under the newly-created Virgil Abloh Securities.
• During this week’s Miami Art Week, she’s introducing a four-day festival developed by VA Securities and Nike that will “celebrate Mr. Abloh’s life and open-source his ideas. She hopes it will become an annual event.”
• The festival, which will take place at the Rubell Museum in Miami, will include discussions, workshops, exhibitions, concerts, and a skateboard competition.

Ms. Abloh, in her role as the president of the Virgil Abloh Foundation, is hosting a summit next spring that will bring together Virgil’s many collaborators to brainstorm ways to increase creative opportunities for the next generation of minority students.

The goal of the summit, and of the foundation at large, is to give 12-to-17-year-olds “the portfolios they need” to follow in Virgil’s footsteps in design, architecture, and many other creative endeavors.

Pass on the making
But Ms. Abloh is also making sure that Virgil’s many creations — those already in the works and those that have been under lock and key — see the light of day.

• The festival will also be the launch of the Nike Air Terra Forma — “the first sneaker Mr. Abloh created from scratch for Nike and its next big release.”
• John Hoke, the chief creative officer at Nike, said there’s “at least a year’s worth” of Off-White x Nike collabs that are “in the pipeline.”
• Ms. Abloh also wants to bring to life the “hundreds of projects that he worked on that he never put out.”

Howard Feller, Virgil’s business advisor who is now in that role for Ms. Abloh, said that “we are on the 50-year plan.” Considering how much is in the works, the influence may go way beyond that.

How Louis Vuitton will crown a new designer

The Future. LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton, has been searching for a designer to run creative at the brand after the sudden passing of Virgil Abloh. Considering Abloh’s monumental impact not just on Louis Vuitton (and his ability to make the brand cool to a new, diverse generation of consumers) but on the industry at large, the post may be the biggest shoes to fill in fashion.

The annals of Abloh

Business of Fashion breaks down the quest for Virgil Abloh’s successor.

• LVMH has been on the hunt for nearly a year to find a replacement.
• It’s reportedly considering Martine Rose (who runs her own self-titled label), Grace Wales Bonner (who runs Wales Bonner), and Telfar Clemens (who runs TELFAR).

The group expects to make a decision in the coming weeks.

Fashion an heir

How does a major fashion house like LVMH choose its next clothing chief?

• First, the company’s leadership — the CEO, the board of directors, the founders — must decide if they’ll “evolve” the brand (usually, elevating someone inside the company, or “overhaul” it (usually, hiring someone outside the company).
• Then they look for someone who has a clear vision, is a good communicator, and can work in a corporate environment — all things that are a bit more important than being technically proficient at design.
• Potential candidates are then given a creative assignment to execute, which could be anything from creating a brand book to “conceiving a room in the brand’s essence.”

After taking into account the candidate’s ability to simultaneously run their own label, the power of their own personal brand, and hearing from the label’s CEO, it’s the group’s CEO that makes the final decision.