- JungYeol Kim
- Feb 7, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 8, 2024
Before I show you the impressive photos.... Pharrell's Instagram is currently under comment attack. It seems to be because of his fundraising for the Israeli Defense Forces FIDF in 2018. Back then, $60 million was raised, which is now 8 billion won due to the exchange rate. So, the #freepalestine hashtag is getting a lot of comments. And watermelon is like a meme that insults black people... In the old days, watermelon (the cheapest) was almost the only fruit that black slaves could eat.
PS_ Anyway, if you look up Pharrell interviews, he talks a lot about God... He seems to have a fundamentalist faith (Zionism). You could say he's on the far right among conservative American beliefs.
Pharrell says he's not a designer, he says he's a director. If directors don't feel inferior to designers, this kind of result comes out. Especially in this Louis Vuitton 24 FW, there are many bags and shoes worth buying. Especially, this kind of work needs to be seen and held in hand to be scanned... I have to go and see it this fall.
Actually, this isn't radical. The radical thing is actually Marc Jacobs' graffiti. It's blowing a whistle at the dying tradition (radical) by smearing graffiti on Louis Vuitton's monogram. In this Pharrell show, the existing Louis Vuitton wasn't the target of reform, and the existing Louis Vuitton was just ignored. So, rather than feeling like he set a standard and reformed by grasping the standard (existing Louis Vuitton), it feels like he ignored that standard and just accommodated it.
Anyway, if you define this show in two words, it's this: western & work, or brown & black. For example.... Western boots & Timberland Yellow boots. Native American & black laborers (slaves) This theme has nothing to do with Louis Vuitton, and if you think about it a little, it doesn't have much to do with Pharrell either, which is the viewing point.
Anyway, there are about 80 styles in this show, with hats, bags, shoes, jackets... There were a lot of things I wanted to buy. If that's the case, this show might have been a great successㅋ.
Out of the total 80 styles, the clothes that appeared at the front were a bit intense. By the way, I have no idea why the ribbon was added to the neck. It feels like they added a useless genderless/feminine vibe, personally, I think it would have been better if they had removed that.
The biggest beneficiary of this show might be Timberland.
There are dozens of experts coordinating the final result in the Louis Vuitton design team, so it wouldn't be Pharrell's mistake. From what I see, it's probably because the chairman's daughter of the LVMH group (the chairman's favorite...) took over Christian Dior. I think it's part of the group's concept and restructuring process. Elevating Christian Dior to the level of Hermes (elegant and classic luxury), and spreading the strategy of Louis Vuitton taking over the lower market. Especially, looking at the bright yellow/bright red + golden chains, shapes reminiscent of Chinese mountain traditional shoes, etc., it seems deliberate to target the Chinese market. Also, looking at the campaign, they emphasize places where strong currents like submarines flow, because in China, people widely believe in the feng shui of big water currents (= flow of money). Also, the fact that Dior designers suddenly brought out the 1990s Dior archive and are doing retro classics can be explained by this.
