Rihanna Takes the Lead in Pharrell's Louis Vuitton Campaign

by SHOWstudio on 26 June 2023

The full campaign and video, released today, sees Rihanna bring the buzz of New York's Canal Street to the heart of Paris, the city of Louis Vuitton.

The full campaign and video, released today, sees Rihanna bring the buzz of New York's Canal Street to the heart of Paris, the city of Louis Vuitton.

When guests to Louis Vuitton's S/S 24 menswear show were ferried along the Seine at sundown for Pharrell Williams's debut as menswear's creative director last Monday evening, they passed under the musician, producer and designer's first campaign for the French luxury fashion house starring Rihanna. Plastered across a billboard on the side of the Musée d’Orsay, within sight of Vuitton's HQ across the river, the global superstar who has become famed for killing the pregnancy fashion game, donned a leather jacket in a pixelated take on the Vuitton damier check motif. The first real glimpse of what Williams's Vuitton would look like, Rihanna was armed with three Speedy bags and a coffee cup in hand - all elements which would rear their heads in the 71 looks which made their way down the runway on the Pont Neuf bridge. The full campaign and accompanying film launches today.

Rhianna for Louis Vuitton

Photographed by Keizō Kitajima and Martine Syms, the campaign recontextualises the brand's emblematic Speedy bag. Built upon luxury ideals of wearability and adaptability, it's no wonder the style has become a must-have token item, helped along by Williams who was seen sporting the yellow colourway of his own Speedy design around various S/S 24 shows this season.

Created by Gaston-Louis Vuitton in 1930, the 'Speedy' design - originally known as the Express - was borne to reflect the Gatsby era's infatuation with speed and cars. Due to its rich history, the design reached icon status long ago and has undergone many artistic interpretations over the last century, with Pharrell's Rhianna-esque association transporting it into today's pop star-obsessed world.

Rhianna for Louis Vuitton

Yes, the campaign may be for Louis Vuitton menswear, but when showing off such an icon as the Speedy, an equal icon must be chosen. In view of Rhianna's pop star status with a cultural cache stretching across the globe, she makes for a perfect Williams collaborator - whose role at Louis Vuitton is not just to be a creative director but a 'cultural conductor', creating buzz and stirring hype around the brand just as his predecessor, Virgil Abloh, did. Now, the new Speedy bag is a collaboration in itself, tied to Williams implicitly as Louis Vuitton's creative director but also to Rihanna as the face of the campaign, making it a bag as alluring for the men's division of Louis Vuitton, as it has been for the women's.

Although many in the fashion industry went wide-eyed at the news of Pharrell's Louis Vuitton appointment earlier this year, Pharrell himself isn't new to the storied French house. While he may not be a 'trained' fashion designer, Pharrell has a history of creating covetable sell-out products with the brand and has also been attending Louis Vuitton shows since 2004; the first year he worked with the house. That year, he and Nigo, the co-creators of Billionaire Boys Club (Nigo is now Kenzo's creative director), created the 'Millionaire Sunglasses' collection (which were described as 'one part Tony Montana, one part The Notorious B.I.G), with the help of then creative director, Marc Jacobs. Four years later, Williams returned to the house to work on the 'Blason' collection with the brand's jewellery designer at the time, Camille Miceli, creating status-worthy rings with one of the more iconic pieces from this collection being the yellow gold cupid ring.

Rhianna for Louis Vuitton

Styled by longtime Pharrell collaborators Cynthia Lu and Matthew Henson, the Rihanna campaign serves as an offset to the creative direction of Pharrell at the Louis Vuitton Studio Prêt-à-Porter Homme. Released in tandem with the S/S 24 Men's show, it employs imagery that doubles up as part of the collection, with a pregnant Rihanna acting as a symbol of human empowerment while maintaining the status of a quintessential everyday icon; this is both luxury and comfort, set in codes of reality to mirror the times we live in.

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