Pharrell casts a pregnant Rihanna as his menswear muse

With T-5 days until his big Louis Vuitton debut, Pharrell Williams has provided another glimpse at his upcoming collection – plastering Rihanna’s image across the side of a Parisian building. Bundled in colourful, monogrammed bags, with her bump bursting from a glitch-print leather shirt, that Williams should have a pregnant woman front his first-ever men’s campaign is important: it’s not about biological sex, it’s about swag. And the designer himself seems to share in that attitude, thumbs hooked into the waist of his stacked flares as if he’s just pulled off an insane trick. 

The duo’s friendship goes back to when they were just a couple of singer-songwriters, releasing their joint track “Lemon” in 2017 with Williams rumoured to be working on Rihanna’s near-mythical ninth album. They are also the only celebrities to have ever been inserted at an LVMH brand – and while Rihanna shuttered her label in 2021, what’s to say she won’t collaborate on a Louis Vuitton capsule at some point? The same goes for BTS icon J-Hope who was unveiled as the face of the house’s signature Keepall bag less than 24 hours ago, flinging himself around a stark white studio in a series of asymmetric suits.

Details of Williams’ collection remain sparse – all will be revealed on June 20 – but it does seem as though he’s making efforts to honour the roots of Louis Vuitton as an accessories brand. The maison only started to create clothing in 1997 when Marc Jacobs took to the helm, and all of Williams’ imagery has thus far centred on handbags and leather goods. There’s a hell of a lot to get through before his debut, though, with Fendi staging its SS24 collection in Florence and the entirety of Milan Fashion Week yet to take place. Stay with us as we round up the best from this season’s collections, and keep an eye on Dazed’s Instagram and TikTok accounts for all the breaking news and weird moments bound to surface.