Pharrell Williams' Louis Vuitton SS26 Collection Is Rooted in Wearability
Louis VuittonMen's Creative DirectorPharrell Williamsunveiled hisSpring/Summer 2026collection, a vibrant homage to modern Indian sartorialism infused with the dandyism central to the house. Staged in Paris's 4th arrondissement, the presentation transcended a typical fashion show, transforming into an immersive experience complete with a monumental 'Snakes and Ladders' board game runway, designed in collaboration with architectural visionaries Studio Mumbai.
The collection, deeply inspired by the sensory environments of India, reflects on the nuanced sensibilities of present-day Indian clothing—its fabrics, cuts, colors, and craftsmanship, all conditioned by urban life, nature, and the vitality of the sun. This 'mind-expanding instinct' aligns perfectly with Louis Vuitton's heritage as a house of travel, connecting a worldwide community through an appreciation for discernment and savoir-faire.
While the runway set might have been rife with bold, thematic elements, the collection itself was notably among Pharrell's most 'safest' and, arguably, most wearable for the House to date. This wasn't a drawback; it signaled a pragmatic approach, focusing on pieces with genuine commercial appeal. The collection featured buttery leather jackets, clean overcoats, sharp blazers, roomy dress trousers, short-sleeve button-ups, and quintessential formal wear, alongside the brand's iconic monogrammed leather baggage. This focus on realistic, shelf-ready clothing suggests a response to market demands, possibly addressing LVMH's recent sales slump, or simply leveraging Pharrell's innate ability to capture attention without ostentatious runway theatrics.
Despite its commercial viability, the collection did not shy away from bold details for Louis Vuitton's 'loudly luxurious clients.' Audacious designs included mirage-like metallic jackets, trousers, and ties, as well as animal-covered suits, coats, and accessories, all executed with a refined touch that avoids being 'over the top.' A new brown denim wash, inspired by coffee beans, offered an alternative to classic indigo, designed to reveal its white thread over time.
The collection was rich with cultural infusions and meticulous details. For the first time, motifs from the 2007 filmThe Darjeeling Limitedanimated embroideries and prints, including designs on bags used in the movie. Tailoring featured a 'lived-in elegance,' while 'glamping'-inspired mountaineering pieces like shell jackets and hiking boots were dandy-fied with heritage patterns and opulent embellishments. Everyday items were enriched with hand-embroidered stones, lace, and micro beads, with a check shell suit even woven entirely in metal yarn.
Accessories included the new Speedy P9 bag in various luxurious treatments (painted stripes, vibrant embroidery, exotic leathers), and new shoe models like the LV Jazz lace-ups, LV Tilted skate shoe, and LV Buttersoft sneaker. The presentation was underscored by a bold original soundtrack composed and produced by Pharrell Williams, featuring diverse artists including Voices of Fire, A. R. Rahman, Clipse, Doechii and Tyler, the Creator, turning the show into an immersive spectacle where culture, connection, and creative energy converged.
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Forbes
6 hours ago
- Forbes
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Is Rewriting American Culture — And Boosting The Economy
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 24: Beyoncé Knowles / Beyonce wears a cowboy hat, a burgundy faux fur fluff ... More coat on one shoulder, a blue denim shirt, during the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 24, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by) It was a humid night in Houston when Beyoncé Knowles-Carter moved financial markets—a role typically reserved for the Federal Reserve, the president, or Congress. In the 48 hours surrounding her Cowboy Carter Tour stop, the Bayou City raked in more than $50 million in local spending. Hotels and restaurants were booked to capacity. Surge pricing broke ride-share apps. And local boot stores had lines wrapped around the block. No bill was passed. No policy enacted. This boom came courtesy of a Black woman in a cowboy hat, singing and dancing on horseback. The Cowboy Carter Tour, spanning eight cities and 32 stadium shows, is now winding down in Las Vegas. But it has left more than just cowboy boots and hats behind. In every city it touched, the economic glow still lingers. In a time of seismic shifts in the marketplace and the political landscape, Knowles-Carter has become more than a cultural icon—she's an economic force. With Cowboy Carter, the Grammy-winning artist isn't just reclaiming country music's Black historic roots, she's staking a bold claim on American identity itself, all wrapped in the American flag. It's a masterclass in ownership, scarcity, and cultural disruption—with real implications for micro- and macro-economics nationwide. As cities see real economic impact from Beyoncé's presence, cultural economist Thomas Smith argues her tour is a lesson in modern market behavior, civic stimulus, and the future of 'event economics' in divided times. 'Beyonce coming to town gets everyone riled up, and for cities that means folks converge on areas around the stadium and spend bunches of money,' Smith said. 'This makes her concert more than just entertainment, she's an economic event.' LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 02: Beyoncé accepts the Best Country Album award for "COWBOY ... More CARTER" onstage during the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Arena on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor The Recording Academy) While her work has drawn fierce criticism from the same forces intent on dragging America back to a time when artists were expected to sing, dance, and stay silent about politics, Knowles-Carter has transcended the noise. Thanks to a loyal fan base and her unapologetic embrace of every facet of her identity—mother, daughter, Black woman, global citizen, and soundtrack supplier for the resistance—she remains a cultural force. Knowles-Carter's voice became even more pronounced with the 2016 release of Lemonade, her sixth studio album, which featured the single 'Formation.' She shook the culture and electrified her fanbase during the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, where she appeared in a Black Panther–inspired bodysuit with a golden 'X' emblazoned across the top. Her dancers wore Black berets—a symbol of global Black resistance, from the Panthers in the U.S. to Caribbean revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Lemonade landed at a moment of national reckoning—after the murder of Trayvon Martin, amid the rise of #MeToo, and during a surge of high-profile police killings of unarmed Black men. That album became a cultural inflection point, giving voice to demands for both social and political change. It also marked a strategic shift: Beyoncé released the visual album exclusively on Tidal, the streaming platform owned by her husband, Jay-Z. Football: Super Bowl 50: Celebrity singer Beyonce performing during halftime show of Denver Broncos ... More vs Carolina Panthers game at Levi's Stadium. Santa Clara, CA 2/7/2016 CREDIT: Robert Beck (Photo by Robert Beck /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: SI-123 TK1 ) The album was released with no press, no leaks, and flawless execution, a bold pivot that cemented Knowles-Carter not just as a performer, but as a CEO and cultural entrepreneur. It marked a strategic shift from traditional promotion to surprise drops, using scarcity and precision to meet and shape market demand. More than a response to a cultural moment, Lemonade embodied Knowles-Carter's 'joy-as-resistance' ethos, offering a vibrant counter to a nation that had just elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. While Trump sold grievance and nostalgia for a mythologized 1950s, Knowles-Carter offered a future-facing vision. Still capitalist, yes, but one rooted in diversity, pride, and cultural ownership. Her music, visuals, and merchandise became part of a larger narrative: that joy, style, and identity are not just aesthetic choices, but political acts. Singing about generational wealth, freedom from historical bondage, and the alchemy of turning lemons into lemonade, Knowles-Carter claimed her space as an artist unafraid to challenge, evolve, and expand her audience's worldview. Back on the Cowboy Carter Tour, while promoting music from her second studio album since Lemonade, Knowles-Carter's role in the so-called 'quiet resistance' has been anything but quiet. Leaning into her southern roots and the crucial role of Black Southerners in shaping American culture, the album serves as a reclamation of global Blackness as foundational to country music. According to Francesca T. Royster, author of Black Country Music: Listening For Revolutions, country music originates from a creole musical tradition deeply rooted in African-American styles. 'The banjo, often associated in pop culture as an instrument for white people who live in rural areas, was an African instrument brought here by enslaved people,' Royster says in her book. In 2022, while speaking with Leo Weekly, Royster delved deeply into the history and politics of country music. 'This genre was founded on a kind of logic of segregation,' Royster told Leo Weekly. 'In the 1920s when the genre was kind of invented more or less by talent scouts and record label labels, they were distinguishing hillbilly music as kind of a white music that was meant for white audiences, and 'race' music, you know, blues, rhythm and blues, and jazz for Black audiences.' Reimagining rural America and redefining 'Americanism' beyond the white-centered lens it's so often framed in, the Cowboy Carter tour and album offer audiences a striking new association with the American flag—one draped across the body of a Black woman. The Cowboy Carter Tour's DC stop happened over 4th of July weekend in Landover, MD. While the album isn't explicitly partisan, its iconography subtly reshapes national identity. It points to an America—and a broader Western Hemisphere—built on the backs of Black labor, inspired by Black innovation, and powered by Black ingenuity. When Beyoncé rolled into Houston's NRG Stadium on June 28 and 29, her hometown got more than it bargained and budgeted for. According to Axios, hotels near the stadium hit 79 percent occupancy -- a sharp increase from 61 percent the prior year, OpenTable reported a 43 percent increase in Houston-area reservations over that three-day period compared to the same stretch last year. Beyoncé's economic impact extended well beyond Texas. During her stop in the nation's capital over Fourth of July weekend, restaurants surrounding Northwest Stadium (formerly Fedex Field) in Landover, Maryland saw nightly profit spikes of $15,000 to $20,000. All gains that Tom Smith described as beneficial for local economics. 'You gotta have the boots, you gotta have the shirt, you gotta have the hat,' said Smith, an economist at Emory University. 'You gotta have all the things. It's not even worth—it's not even worth going if you don't have all the things making the concert an economic driver for local business in the region.' Beyond uplifting local business, Smith, a bass guitar player himself, also emphasized the broader importance of the tour economy as a catalyst for the industries that power live entertainment. That includes stagecrafters, electrical engineers, lighting designers, dancers, musicians, publicists, costume designers, and the full teams that support them. 'A lot of those jobs were decimated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when no one was going on tour,' Smith said. 'And now, these big, mammoth tours, these big stadium tours are spending millions of dollars every night on the people that make sure that the sound and the lights and the ancillary element are working.' SYDNEY COLEMAN (L) and JESSICA HANNAH (R) traveled from Houston, TX. Fans of Beyonce queue to enter ... More SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 28, 2025 to watch her first concert of her newTour named "Cowboy Carter." (Photo by Bexx Francois/For The Washington Post via Getty Images) Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé's second U.S. tour since the pandemic. And while it's most definitely different in tone, the financial punch for America's big cities remains the same. It couldn't come at a more convenient time, either, as cities across the country are seeing a decrease in crime and are searching for new sources of revenue amid a cavalcade of budget cuts from Washington, D.C. As Beyoncé's golden horse, floating horseshoe, and many of her now-iconic Cowboy Carter costumes make their way to the storage units, it's likely her economic impact — not just her spectacle — that cities and states will remember. Beyoncé's name was never on the ballot. She never passed a bill or rage-tweeted on X. And yet, her version of disruption has managed to move both culture and the economy. In her song 'American Requiem,' Knowles-Carter asks listeners to confront the complex and often painful history of race and culture in America. It's a counter narrative to today's political moment, one that treats historical truth as a liability. Through it all, Beyoncé may be proving something radically different: that reckoning with the past isn't just necessary, it might also be profitable.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: A delicious weekend at Ravinia brings together music and fine dining
'A good program,' chief conductor Marin Alsop told a crowd in Ravinia's Tree Top Lounge, 'is like a meal.' She wasn't just reaching for a fanciful metaphor. Each year, Breaking Barriers, the festival-within-a-festival she devised around gender equity at Ravinia, spotlights a different profession. This year's focus on the culinary arts invited women chefs to devise dishes inspired by Alsop's Chicago Symphony programs. Alsop picked the music, while her co-curator, 'Food Network' star Molly Yeh, matchmade the pieces with specific chefs. At this ticketed, add-on event in the Tree Top Lounge, a Ravinia audience sampled the results. The chefs themselves assembled and handed out the hors d'oeuvres at a long table: 'Chopped' judge Maneet Chauhan, New York City baker Jacqueline Eng, Florida chef Mika Leon, and Monteverde and Pastificio chef/co-owner Sarah Grueneberg. For some of the chefs, thinking deeply about music is already second nature. Yeh is the daughter of CSO clarinetist John Bruce Yeh and a Juilliard-trained percussionist; she designed a bite and performed at Saturday's chamber concert. And Eng is also a percussionist with a Juilliard credential. (Those department dinner parties must have been elite.) Despite the crush of more than 250 attendees — about the most Tree Top can fit comfortably — the preconcert tasting went off smoothly. When the line got long, a quick-thinking Chauhan started offering her dish to those waiting, scoopable from a Fritos bag. I'm a pale excuse for a food critic. But after sampling the bites first, then attending the concert in the Pavilion, I found that the chefs' dishes uncannily forecasted the performance to come. Here's how this musical feast went on Friday: Accompanying Reena Esmail's 'Re|Member' By seeking an Indian spin on Midwestern comfort food, Chauhan set a challenge for herself. Any Frito pie, even a cheffed-up one, has to contend with the overwhelming saltiness of the chips themselves. Chauhan might not have been able to surmount that totally, but I can't imagine it being done much better. Her answer was to introduce several tastes: fruity pops of pomegranate seed and mango koochumbar, sweet-and-sour tamarind chutney and briny-creamy queso fresco. In a clever stroke, Chauhan made the vindaloo with ground lamb, rather than the usual hunks, to nod to the more traditional chili topping. Your aunt in Cedar Rapids would surely approve. The Midwest/Indian mashup was apropos for Esmail, who was born in Chicago. In her 'Re|Member,' premiered in 2021, an oboist prerecords their solo, to be shown on a video screen at the top of the piece. Later, the video returns, with the same oboist duetting with their past self live onstage. Of all the pandemic-era commissions out there, Esmail's 'Re|Member' stands out for its poignancy — and I loved that Chauhan, by riffing on a familiar, lovable dish, managed to nod to that nostalgia. So, I was extra disappointed that Ravinia opted to go a different direction for this performance. Instead of the video duet, CSO oboists Lora and Will Welter played a spatialized duet— Schaefer playing in the Pavilion aisle, Welter onstage. Even with its profundity curbed, this was a fine, stirring performance. That's a credit to guest conductor Alexandra Arrieche, a participant in Alsop's fellowship program for female conductors. Accompanying Tim Corpus's 'Great Lake Concerto,' Movement III When you think 'percussion,' you probably think big, bold, maybe a little aggro. It's no surprise Eng's perspective as a former percussionist led her to temper those stereotypes. Instead of going for the obvious associations, she focused on that other, unseen aspect of being a musician: long sessions in the practice room. As she explained in the introductory video played in the Pavilion, she selected rye for its resilience in many different climates. (That grain selection had the added benefit of a slightly sour edge, brightening the dish.) And the bean-and-vegetable it rested upon had the rich, layered flavor one can only achieve by stewing high-quality ingredients patiently for hours on end. Decadent, a little cheesy, and oh-so-umami, it was the most flavor-packed bite of the evening. With its focus on Lakes-region vegetables and grains, Eng also drew inspiration from the piece's title. Corpus, a Chicago-based composer, composed the work specifically for CSO percussionist Vadim Karpinos and Lyric percussionist Ed Harrison; it was premiered by Roosevelt University's student orchestra last year. The third movement, marked 'Explosive,' throws us into a fast-paced repartee between Karpinos and Harrison from opposite sides of the stage — Karpinos on xylophone, Harrison on tom-toms. Corpus's writing is consistently inventive: It's never quite clear whether the soloists are teasing one another or casually trying to one-up each other, and you'll never hear a xylophone sound more mournful than it does at the middle of the movement. I's always a high endorsement, to both performer and composer, when people start hooting in the middle of a classical music piece like they're at a stadium show. Harrison's moment was his minute-long maraca solo (yes, really), and Karpinos' his stunt of tossing, then catching, a shekere 10 feet in the air during a cadenza. I'll be thinking about that performance for a long time—just like those beans. Accompanying George Gershwin's 'Cuban Overture' Of the four, León's dish was the most conventional, which is no slight. The texture of the ropa vieja was just right — not too soupy, but also not getting caught in your teeth for perpetuity, like some ropier ropas viejas. I could see a world in which the tostón weighs down the dish. Instead, it was just dense enough to support the generous mound of meat on top. I might have wanted some more acidity to brighten the dish. Then again, at this point in the meal, some unabashed heartiness was welcome. Without León's dish, I don't know that I would have left the Tree Top Lounge fully satiated. Alsop and the CSO's 'Cuban Overture' stuck to one's ribs, too. Maybe a little too much, actually — the overall spirit seemed transplanted from Gershwin's blustery, big-city tone poems, like 'American in Paris' or 'Rhapsody in Blue.' For a work that references son and rumba so deeply over its short duration, this overture didn't dance much as possible, I tried to isolate each dish's composite parts before taking them in together. The lamb vindaloo in the Frito pie. The cultured butter off Eng's rye toast. Even the tostón, alone, in León's creation. When I did the same for this 'pasta tale' — a chilled orzo, with a tomato saffron sauce pooling at its side — I admit, I was skeptical. Between the freshness of the lump crab and its vegetal crunch, the orzo had all the makings of a great summer pasta salad, if on the mild-mannered side. Meanwhile, the sauce was not at all what I expected, leading with the tomato's acidity. The saffron, for all its potency, arrives only on the back end of the bite, albeit mild enough to be overpowered by the taste of Ravinia's wooden utensils. I swapped to plastic before mixing it all together and digging in. Then: total magic. It's as though Grueneberg had carefully plotted a run-of-show for each bite. First, the salinity of the crab, now amplified. Then, that tomato zing, rounded off pleasantly to become more mere aroma than star. The fresh veggies complete the garden, but no longer dominate. And then: the saffron, asserting itself more bravely than before. If this ends up on Monteverde's menu, catch me there tomorrow, a Road-Runner puff of dust pluming behind. What kismet that the most nuanced dish got the most nuanced performance. If programs are like meals, 'Scheherazade' would be the equivalent of a weekly special at Chez Ravinia: Like Copland's Clarinet Concerto, appearing later in the weekend, Alsop conducted the work earlier in her Ravinia tenure, in 2022. But the flavor profile of this meeting between CSO, Alsop and associate concertmaster Stephanie Jeong — who, then and now, played the expansive solos representing Scheherazade — has only deepened in those three years. Conducting scoreless, as is her wont in big repertoire works, Alsop had a specific and inspiring vision for the piece: an end-to-end lyricism, episodes that elicited delicious contrasts, slowdowns that were just right. But don't mistake specificity for micromanagement. Just as exhilarating was the sheer freedom and creativity the CSO seized in their solos. Stephen Williamson's runs in the third movement slowed at their peak, like the suspended, heartstopping moment before a roller coaster's big drop. Keith Buncke's bassoon solo was punctuated by pauses, a sage carefully choosing his words. And Jeong — where to begin? It was really her Scheherazade, a masterclass in taking time and, when called for, freezing it altogether. I can't think of a better 'Scheherazade' I've heard live, anywhere, even including Grant Park's noble account last summer. If only we could come back for seconds. The Breaking Barriers Festival continues 5 p.m. Sunday with Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, 'Italian,' and Chicago Symphony clarinetist Stephen Williamson playing Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto. Tickets $35–$95 Pavilion, $15 lawn. More information at
Hypebeast
2 days ago
- Hypebeast
Paris Fashion Week Schedule Unveiled & LVMH Sales Dip in This Week's Top Fashion News
Paris Fashion Week, running from September 29 to October 7, will host an unprecedented number of creative director debuts for the Spring 2026 women's ready-to-wear season. Notable debuts includeMatthieu BlazyatChanelon October 6,Jonathan Andersonpresenting his firstDiorwomen's collection on October 1, andPierpaolo Piccioli'sBalenciagadebut on October 4. Other designers making their debuts in new roles include Miguel Castro Freitas atMugler, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez atLoewe,Glenn MartensforMaison Margiela's RTW, andDuran LantinkbringingJean Paul Gaultierback to the ready-to-wear schedule. As anticipation builds for these historic debuts, industry leaders are banking on refreshed perspectives to revitalize the luxury landscape. LVMHmissed analyst expectations in the first half of 2025, with net profit down 22% and overall revenue falling 4% year-over-year to €39.8 billion. Their largest division, Fashion and Leather Goods, which is home to brands likeLouis Vuitton, Dior, andLoro Piana, saw a 9% sales drop. Following a brief post-pandemic lift in performance, the group and its competitors, Kering and OTB Group, have been affected by an industry-wide drop in luxury spending. These developments ledHermèsto surpass LVMH as the most valuable luxury stock earlier this Summer. The group also faces negative publicity this year, including a labor exploitation scandal affecting Loro Piana, data breaches at Louis Vuitton, and a cultural appropriation controversy at Dior. Consumer negative reactions to price hikes and low confidence are further hindering sales, indicating the luxury slowdown may persist. Sofia Coppola, director ofPriscilla (2023), will release a documentary, 'Marc by Sofia,' focusing on fashion designerMarc Jacobsat theVenice Film Festivalin September. The 97-minute film, titled in homage to the beloved, discontinued Marc by Marc Jacobs line, will debut out of competition between August 27 and September 6. It traces Jacobs' rise in the fashion world and offers an intimate look into his decades-long creative friendship with Coppola, which began in 1992 after Jacobs' Perry Ellis grunge collection. The documentary features rare archival footage, highlighting their collaborations, from Jacobs casting Coppola in early campaigns to their work during his time at Louis Vuitton and more recently at,Heaven. Willy Chavarriahas been named the first fashion designer to become an Artist Ambassador for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).This first-of-its-kind ACLU partnership provides Chavarria with a prominent platform to champion crucial issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and immigrant rights. His commitment to social justice is long-standing, as evidenced by his recent SS26 Paris runway show, which actively protested immigration crackdowns and drew attention to the inhumane conditions prevalent in detention centers. 'Art, music, and fashion can have a tremendous impact on how we realize and promote social justice and human dignity. I'm happy to further utilize my own platform for the empowerment of others,' Chavarria said in a statement toWWD. Jonathan Anderson is confirmed as the costume designer forLuca Guadagnino's upcoming 'AI comedy' film,Artificial, marking their third collaboration afterChallengers(2024)andQueer(2024). The movie, loosely based on the story ofOpenAIand its CEO, Sam Altman, will explore controversies within Big Tech and the growing infiltration of AI into daily life. Anderson's previous work on Challengers earned him a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination, solidifying his prowess in cinematic styling. The film is set to starAndrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, andCooper Koch, and is currently in pre-production, with an official release date yet to be announced. Thom Brownehas opened a new store on New York City's Upper East Side, located at 898 Madison Avenue. This new shop is exclusively dedicated to the brand's leather goods and footwear, marking a larger presence for Thom Browne in the area, just a short walk from its 72nd Street flagship. The store is designed as a 'focused, intimate space' to highlight the label's key accessories, including the Hector Bag and its animal-shaped successors, as well as classic baguette bags in various materials. The boutique also features Mr. and Mrs. Thom Bags and a range of footwear like heritage trainers, signature brogues, and wingtip heels, presented as 'objets d'arts'.
