It was a trippy experience for guests who sat down to encounter the Louis Vuitton FW24 menswear collection as it closed out the first day of Paris Fashion Week. One moment they're in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, an amusement park in Paris. The next, they're transported to the vast and rocky terrain of America's wild west.
Standout looks from the Louis Vuitton Fall 2024 menswear collection
Menswear creative director, Pharrell drew on folklore and Americana for his sophomore collection for the French Maison. Turquoise coated buttons, earrings, bolo ties, cowboy boots, and coloured hand and travel bags. Tooled leather was a mainstay, appearing on belts and bags. Jackets had hulking, sloping shoulders and emerged sans lapels. There was a Canadian tuxedo or two, embroidered chaps, while suits came in sandy tones with bell bottom pants. Cow print had a moment, then arrived distorted through the pixelated motifs of previous seasons. Later on came Buffalo check. How to resist aviators or a cowboy hat? Intermittently, a model would cart a Louis Vuitton trunk around on a makeshift wheelbarrow, or a huge leather carry-all would stop traffic.
Towards the end of the runway, we saw the cowboys evolve with red carpet-friendly formalwear, accompanied by snowfall. Suedes were swapped for glossy leathers, duster coats exchanged for rhinestone-bedazzled bombers. The sheer level of detail is hard to capture, just know that every western archetype was touched on.
Native American models dominated the runway, Anok Yai and Imaan Hammam were present, with familiar Australian faces also cast such as Ayden Williams, Joey Lanham, Chanupa Amarasinghe, and Matthew Lee.
As we've come to expect, especially from a house who's creative director doubles as a record producer and songwriter, music was paramount to the collection. Pharrell collaborated with British folk rock band Mumford & Sons for the collection, who debuted their first song since 2019 entitled Good People created purely for the Paris show.
