Pharrell Williams to bring fashion show to HK
Musician-turned-designer Pharrell Williams will hold his second show as creative director for Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong, the brand announced on Tuesday. Williams will hold a "pre-fall show" for his menswear line on November 30, following his glitzy debut at Paris Fashion Week in June. It emphasises the importance of Chinese consumers to Louis Vuitton, which said it "found the cultural vibrancy of this island archipelago an ongoing source of inspiration". Williams succeeded Virgil Abloh, the first black American to helm a major French label until his death from cancer. The "Happy" singer's appointment was seen as reflecting a broader merging of fashion, hip-hop and pop culture, though it goes against the grain of most recent appointments at big labels such as Gucci and Chloe who have opted for less flashy but technically proficient artisans. His first show in June saw Paris's historic Pont Neuf bridge painted gold for a celeb-packed party featuring a concert by Jay-Z. It demonstrated the spending power of the label, which helped boost profits at parent company LVMH by 30 percent to 8.48 billion euros ($9.34 billion) in the first half of the year. "What it is that I was brought in here to do is to push expansion and growth not only in sales, but in perspective, culturally," Williams told Business of Fashion this week. (AFP)