Pharrell Williams, the future of fashion?

Pharrell Williams is one of the most influential music producers of the past three decades. A phenomenal singer-songwriter, he is the winner of 13 Grammy awards. As a cultural pioneer, he has straddled the worlds of fashion and music in a variety of guises, founded multiple brands and steered dozens of collaborations with what seems like seamless ease.

Williams has become central to our cultural lives, and done so with uncanny nonchalance. His forays into fashion have seen him walk the catwalk at Chanel, partner with Japanese fashion designer Nigo to create two bestselling streetwear brands, work long-term with sportswear giant Adidas and launch a skincare range called Humanrace.

Williams is not a fashion designer. But this did not preclude his being appointed this week as the new creative director of menswear for the LVMH-owned Louis Vuitton, one of the most prestigious jobs in the industry. Louis Vuitton revenues surpassed €20bn for the first time in 2022, making it by far the largest and most successful maison within the group. Most of that money is made via its sale of handbags. Clothes make up only a fragment of overall sales.

But Williams’s appointment brings with it a tacit acknowledgment from a house that has long promoted a narrative of savoir faire and craftsmanship that, when it comes to customer engagement, celebrity wins out.

Why bother racking up student debt if you can go viral with a video? Why spend years studying design?

Williams is by no means the first designer who lacks a basic training in pattern-cutting, or who may not have studied drape and fold. Ralph Lauren founded his business empire shilling home-made ties to retailers. Karl Lagerfeld never studied fashion. And Miuccia Prada obtained a PhD in political science and studied mime before returning to Milan to take on the family’s leather business and launch a debut fashion line.

None of these figures was a celebrity, however, and none of them had made a name in any industry before. This latest appointment seems the apex of the trend for celebrity appointments: where former chancellors of the exchequer are made the editors of newspapers, TikTok influencers are given TV shows, and social media stars helm magazines.

LVMH has some form in this tradition. In 2019, and amid much fanfare, the group launched only its second-ever start-up business when it backed Rihanna’s Fenty, a direct-to-consumer project that shuttered after two years. But it had great success with the appointment of Virgil Abloh to the role now occupied by Williams. A creative polymath and DJ, who worked with Kanye West and had a background in architecture and furniture design, Abloh was much criticised by traditionalists when he took the role in 2018. But when he died in 2021, he left a legacy strong enough for the brand to mount a full year of projects and posthumous collections with no successor in the wings.

As such, the industry reaction to the news of Williams’s new role has been warm — which is mandatory, I imagine, when his employer is the richest person in the world. And no one is saying that Williams lacks vision or creative brilliance. It simply begs the question: where do we go from here?

What of the fashion students at London’s Central Saint Martins, now finessing the details on their graduate shows? Who do they look to for inspiration, when it’s palpably obvious that experience and training will run a distant second in your employment prospects to the millions of followers you can amass? Why bother racking up student debt if you can go viral with a video? Why spend years studying design? As one designer tells me: “There’s no need for a designer in this new system.” Except that, presumably, even the biggest hype appointment still needs a silent workhorse on the team.

“My initial reaction to the news was one of ‘why do we bother?’ mixed with depression,” says Cozette McCreery, a fashion consultant and mentor for many emerging brands. “Seeing the mixed bag of incredible designers in the [initial Louis Vuitton] running gave me hope for one of them to get the huge platform and the financial break they deserved. Don’t get me wrong — Pharrell’s definitely creative. He will have the best team and I’ve no doubt that the collections will sell. I just personally find it a shame that pop celebrity is what gets you the job, not years of learning within colleges or on the job.”

Fashion is hardly the only place where celebrity is edging out experience. The influencer market now dictates every corner of the culture, from who is cast on Broadway to who gets the book deal, or signs the million-dollar brand partnership. And while Williams is by no means only an influencer, he represents an ethos where the actual job requirements are less important than the name.

If I were currently a school student considering my options, I would probably spend my student loan on a social media manager and a GoPro, rather than waste my time and effort training for a specific creative path.

Email Jo at jo.ellison@ft.com

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