At the opening of Paris Fashion Week, Pharrell Williams staged a megawatt debut as Louis Vuitton’s menswear designer. It was more of a mini-festival than it was a fashion show – bookended with the arrival of Rihanna and a surprise performance from Jay-Z – which is precisely the kind of thing that transforms a brand into a pop-cultural behemoth. Despite his collaborations with Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, and his own Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream imprints, the appointment of Pharrell was regarded as a controversial decision by fashion purists and it now seems to have caused a shift within top-level hiring.
This afternoon, Lanvin announced that Future would be the creative director for the first Lanvin Lab capsule collection. It’s not a permanent position but it does represent an evolution in the time-worn celebrity endorsement, riding on Dua Lipa’s Versace collection, Beyoncé’s Balmain collection, and Erykah Badu’s Marni collection – all of which have surfaced over the last few months. A bolt-on to the brand’s seasonal collections, Lanvin Lab is billed as “a space to dream and play,” inviting guest designers from across the arts to work on a series of collaborative collections. Music will be the focus of the project’s first release and though exact details are yet to be unveiled, the offering will aim to reposition Lanvin in the fashion conversation.
Back in April, Bruno Sialelli quit Lanvin and the brand has yet to confirm a replacement. Future’s involvement, however, is the latest example of the absorption of hip-hop culture into luxury fashion. “Future is a visionary whose artistic influence extends way beyond music and entertainment and resonates throughout broad swathes of contemporary culture today,” an accompanying press release reads. “Lanvin is delighted to partner with Future, whose innovation and originality have reshaped the worlds of music and entertainment.” The inaugural Lanvin Lab collection has been slated for an AW23 release, but in the meantime, click here for a rolling round-up of everything that’s going down at the SS24 menswear edition of Paris Fashion Week.