Pharrell Williams gives Louis Vuitton an advantage in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a city that demands going out. The weather, the vibes and the ever-present feeling that anything is possible. The only thing stopping you is time and traffic. The clothes we wear reflect that, from cargo shorts to open-toe sandals, camp-collared shirts and tank tops. This is a place where romance can blossom, where meet-cute encounters can happen on a bench at Echo Park Lake or in line at Courage Bagels (if you haven't thought about spitting game at Courage yet, give it a try and report back to me). Pharrell Williams' designs for Louis Vuitton are made for that romance, for the first flowers of spring in Los Angeles and virtually any other place imaginable that has an excess of sunshine.

Los Angeles is a city that demands going out. Ren Leslie wears Louis Vuitton Men's.

(Da'Shaunae Marisa / For The Times)

Williams launched her first collection with LV last summer, and of course, thanks to the relentless passage of time (and the needs of the luxury fashion industry), she's already launched her second collection. At his pre-collection 2024 show in Hong Kong, Pharrell added a wetsuit and a surfboard, giving a nod to Los Angeles, to the unbridled power of the ocean that we sometimes take for granted here. Digital “damoflage” suits, with their pixelated patterns, are modern interpretations of camouflage, a print designed to resemble the natural environment. The pre-fall drop has a very clear line that goes back to the first flourishes of his tenure at Vuitton.

Two models wear Louis Vuitton denim ensembles on a picnic blanket in the park.

If there's one word that encompasses Pharrell's spirit as a designer, it's “romance.” The feeling that the impossible is possible. Whether it's naiveté or simply immaculate optimism, it's explicitly captured in the brand's use of the word “lovers” throughout his first collection. Bold floral prints, playful sailor hats and baggy suits are paired with chunky boots and letterman jackets. It's easy to imagine going somewhere in these clothes, even if it's nowhere in particular.

A model wears a pixelated Louis Vuitton jacket in a park.

A black and white photograph of a model wearing a Louis Vuitton jacket.

That all seems very European. The iconography of these garments screams “Parisian youth,” and the Pont Neuf Bridge served as the backdrop for Pharrell's LV launch party last summer. Vuitton's limited-edition pop-up store in West Hollywood that closes at the end of February is decorated to look like that glorious French setting, and the brand is handing out posters of the bridge during the store's grand opening party.

“Saltburn” star Barry Keoghan was the man of the moment at that party, and rightly so. There aren't many actors in Hollywood today who embody the youthful contradiction of thoughtfulness and carelessness that define those years before you had a mortgage and mouths to feed in addition to your own. As “Saltburn” states, in youth you can be whoever you want to be. You can carefully create a persona for public consumption and do it over and over again until you find the image that fits. Of course, in “Saltburn,” that image ended up being that of a vampiric brat who drinks bathwater and plans to murder his only friend in the world. Hopefully, when you were young, you chose something else.

Emily wears Louis Vuitton Men's, Hugo Kreit earrings, and TUK creepers. Ren is wearing Louis Vuitton men's New Rock sneakers.

In America, the sense of personal discovery is something we often equate with Europe, and specifically cultural meccas like Paris. We have to go somewhere to find a semblance of truth. Louis Vuitton, as Pharrell has said before, is about travel. It is a brand that has its roots in the experience of going on vacation thanks to its roots as a luggage company. Travel is freedom and youth allows us to see a place with new eyes and without expectations of comfort. It's about the experience, not the accommodation. Hostels exist for a reason: to open travel possibilities to young adults with little or no disposable income. But LV is all about the luxurious, the elegant and the expensive. Somehow, Pharrell has managed to capture the feeling of youthful, exuberant exploration and at the same time make the clothes very, very pretty. In a way, he's done it by fusing the sensibilities of Paris and Los Angeles.

Okay, so Los Angeles isn't exactly Paris. First of all, Paris doesn't have sushi in malls. And it's almost always hunting season for cyclists in Los Angeles. Also, like most of us, I buy my baguettes at a little place called Ralph's. I'm sure you've heard of him. Pharrell's collection nods to the special humanity of this place we call home through his collaboration with artist Henry Taylor. Taylor contributed embroidered faces on the bags and jackets that were part of that first delivery in Paris. The faces, not identified by the artist, could be anyone. And that's probably the point. These are the faces you will be able to see as you move through the city. Any city, but without a doubt ours.

A model spreads her arms and wears a Louis Vuitton jacket with portraits of Henry Taylor.

Los Angeles is a city captivated by the automobile and its power to transport you from point A to point B in absolute comfort: air conditioning, satellite radio and a spacious trunk to store much more than a simple loaf of bread. If you didn't have a trunk to store miscellaneous junk and had to rely on a carry-on bag or bike basket to store things while traveling, you might consider taking a jump off the Pont Neuf.

Paris, on the other hand, offers the pleasures of the tactile experience of direct contact with the environment. Walk, ride a bike, take the train. Travel by your own means, with the tools that nature or God gave you. The car is our supreme signifier of adulthood. You have to have a lot of money to get one. You have to maintain it, take out insurance and store it safely. It is a weapon when used recklessly. The automobile robs us of our innocence, and we can only regain it by communicating and reintroducing ourselves to the natural world.

In Los Angeles, that's why we surf, hike, or just chill in the park. We can live organically, if only for a moment. When we “touch the grass,” we are reintroduced to what it feels like to be young. Traveling casually, having nowhere to go and everything to do. That's a big part of what Pharrell is doing at Louis Vuitton: making us feel young again. Both Los Angeles and Paris can do that.