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A Review of the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2027 Collection

Pharrell Williams takes Louis Vuitton out in the rain

 

LE MILE

 

By the time Pharrell Williams put Timberland boots on Louis Vuitton’s AW24 runway, hip-hop had spent decades demonstrating what a work boot could become. On New York streets, wheat-coloured nubuck and thick rubber soles had acquired the authority of a uniform.

 
Model wearing a mud-effect Louis Vuitton denim jacket with blue jeans and carrying a pale grey backpack.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Orange Louis Vuitton workwear jacket and a dark brown tote photographed through rain-streaked glass.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Model wearing a burgundy and black Louis Vuitton jacket over a dark suit, white shirt and tie.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Close-up of Louis Vuitton’s belted charcoal tailoring with a blue zip collar and burgundy tie.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Blurred figure in dark Louis Vuitton clothing carrying a large bag behind rain-streaked glass.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Side view of a model in a brown Louis Vuitton coat with yellow lining, layered over a grey suit.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

Rear view of a yellow Louis Vuitton hooded jacket and dark Monogram bag through rain-streaked glass.

Louis Vuitton SS27 lookbook
/ shot by Sarah Blais

 
 

For Whatever the Weather, his Spring/Summer 2027 men’s pre-collection, Pharrell brings that history into Vuitton’s outdoor wardrobe. The Monogram leather shoulders on a blue puffer recall the logo-covered outerwear Dapper Dan made for Harlem’s musicians in the 1980s. The monogram became part of hip-hop’s vocabulary of display. Pharrell is designing inside a house whose glamour musicians and their tailors helped rewrite from outside. The house now makes the kinds of clothes its admirers once invented for themselves.

The leather hoodie takes that licence to remake familiar clothes into the Vuitton workshop, where craftspeople reproduce grey sweatshirt jersey down to the feel of the fabric. That labour is extravagant precisely because the desired effect is so ordinary. Pharrell understands how much attention can go into looking as though you have dressed without thinking. The factory-applied mud on denim and shoes extends menswear’s long habit of paying for scuffs and fading to the dirt itself. For Vuitton, whose business has been built around journeys, even the evidence of having travelled becomes a luxury service.

 
Model obscured by a brown umbrella as water splashes around him in the Louis Vuitton SS27 campaign.

Louis Vuitton SS27 campaign
/ shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch

Dark green Louis Vuitton Monogram tote with a bear charm dressed in a yellow raincoat.

Louis Vuitton SS27 stills
/ shot by Eduard Sanchez

Pair of black Louis Vuitton lace-up shoes positioned to show their thick lugged soles and yellow details.

Louis Vuitton SS27 stills
/ shot by Eduard Sanchez

Three models in orange, yellow and blue Louis Vuitton outerwear against a grey backdrop.

Louis Vuitton SS27 campaign
/ shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch

Model in dark Louis Vuitton tailoring holding a brown umbrella amid splashing water.

Louis Vuitton SS27 campaign
/ shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch

Silver-toned Louis Vuitton Monogram case with a tan leather handle and dark riveted edging.

Louis Vuitton SS27 stills
/ shot by Eduard Sanchez

 
 

The campaign treats this appetite for dressing up with a welcome lack of solemnity, its businessman caught in a storm belongs to the tradition of physical comedy, and Pharrell gives him the elaborate wardrobe the role deserves. The expense makes the predicament funnier. A house that has spent generations equipping travellers allows its customer to lose his composure.

 

all images (c) LV Press, Images courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
/ lookbook images shot by Sarah Blais, campaign images shot by Oliver Hadlee Pearch, still Life images shot by Eduard Sanchez.