The Dandy Behind the Wave
The next morning, at the collection’s re-see, that first impression slowly began to shift. The wave at the centre of the set was still there; but this time it was not the wave that drew the eye, but the clothes standing before it. Up close, leathers that looked sun-faded, surfaces that seemed worn by salt, crystal embroidery recalling fish scales and trompe-l’œil details noticeable only to the touch revealed that the collection’s real story lay not in its set, but in its craftsmanship.
The giant wave placed at the centre of the show was not merely an impressive piece of set design. Pharrell Williams turned it into the collection’s most powerful metaphor. The wave was a force of nature in perpetual motion; it belonged nowhere, yet reached every shore. Perhaps that is why it merged so naturally with the idea of travel that recurred again and again throughout the collection. For some hundred and seventy years, Louis Vuitton has been building a world around suitcases, trunks and journeys. This season, that journey continued not over land, but over water.
That, after all, is what dandyism has always been: the ability to seem at home everywhere without truly belonging anywhere; a distance, an art of self-control. A wave, too, is at once uncontrollable and, for those able to attune to it, a force that can be steered. Pharrell Williams’s “dandy” is exactly this kind of character: he feels no contradiction between city and beach, suit and wetsuit, Pinarello bicycle and Monogram trunk. Because in his world, all these places become stops along a single way of life.
The key to this reading lay in a single sentence Pharrell Williams offered before the show: “This guy is a dandy; he just likes to surf.” From that moment, the surfboards, the wetsuits and the sand-covered runway began to take on another meaning. Because what Louis Vuitton was describing was not surf culture, but a new way of life.
This narrative, stretching from the boardroom to the beach, could be felt in every detail of the collection. Double-breasted jackets and classic tailoring sat alongside technical wetsuits; Monogram trunks alongside a racing bicycle made in collaboration with Pinarello; sun-faded leathers alongside surfaces that seemed eroded by sea salt. During the re-see, these contrasts became far more visible than they had been on the runway. Once the spectacle receded, it became clear that the collection’s true strength lay in its fabric development, its handwork and its research into surfaces.
This is perhaps where Pharrell Williams’s greatest achievement comes to light. He approaches surfing not as a sport, but as a mindset. The ocean is not a destination for the collection; it is a symbol of the freedom to move. That is why the surfboard, the wetsuit and the racing bicycle cease to be mere accessories; they become new vehicles for the idea of travel that Louis Vuitton has been telling for years. The journey that once began with trunks continues today on the waves.
The character Williams has created is a man who goes to a meeting in a double-breasted suit in the morning, rides his Pinarello in the afternoon and, at the end of the day, can shoulder his surfboard and walk into the ocean. All these worlds come together in a single wardrobe, a single identity.
But the most interesting thing about this character is that he is not fixed in a single body or a single style. Each silhouette that passed on the runway repeated the same idea in a different language: at times a Monogram bag carried on the back beneath a leather jacket, at times a red surfboard beside a silk jacquard suit, at times a wooden board tucked under the arm of a palm-print cardigan, at times a python-print jacket with velvet trousers. The dandy is not a single face; he is a character who multiplies throughout the collection, built a little differently each time.
Perhaps that is why the wave at the heart of the collection was never just a piece of set design. It was the most powerful metaphor for the world Pharrell Williams had built: an idea of life in constant motion, able to reach every shore without belonging anywhere. As I left the re-see, what stayed with me was neither that giant wave nor the grandeur of the show. The wave had long since done its job. What remained was a wardrobe that gave new direction to the idea of the journey Louis Vuitton has been telling for some hundred and seventy years. A story that once began with suitcases was now continuing to the rhythm of the ocean. Because what Pharrell Williams was describing was not setting out to sea, but a new idea of the dandy — one who turns movement into a way of life.