What does Pharrell Williams smell like? Sort of like sunshine in a bottle – or so he would have you believe.
Light is the concept behind LV Lovers, the new fragrance from Mr. Williams for Louis Vuitton, which hired him last year as creative director for menswear. “The idea,” Mr. Williams said in an email, “is photosynthesis.”
While this lame idea may confuse even the most passionate fragrance fans, it should resonate with Mr. Williams, who will likely welcome the new scent as an olfactory distillation of his extraordinarily sunny hit single.Cheerful.”
Since joining Louis Vuitton, Mr. Williams has incorporated natural light into his menswear shows. He presented his debut men’s collection for the label on Paris’s Pont Neuf bridge at dusk last June and, on Tuesday, models wearing his latest collection walked under a glowing sky during a show held outside the offices of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, in Paris.
With LV Lovers, Mr. Williams wanted to create a formula that evoked feelings of positivity and well-being — or the metaphorical sensation, as he put it, “of the sun shining on us.” That feeling, Mr. Williams explained, is mainly caused by galbanum, a woody-smelling gum resin derived from a plant common in Iran. It is the main ingredient in the fragrance, which he developed in collaboration with perfumers Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud and Camille Cavallier-Belletrud, a father-daughter team.
LV Lovers, which costs $320, hits shelves about a decade after Mr. Williams collaborated with Comme des Garcons on Girla short-lived unisex fragrance introduced at Sephora to promote his second solo album of the same name.
Did he learn any valuable lessons from that venture? Mr. Williams wouldn’t say.
But he did indicate that LV Lovers currently suits his mood better. Like many of his favorite scents, he said, “it’s an elevated version of something I’m familiar with, not too strong, but definitely on the sweeter side.”
He added: “I can smell the colors – light blue with a hint of purple.”
Will he wear it? “Absolutely,” said Mr Williams.
Valentino goes Gucci?
Alessandro Michele turned the fashion world upside down when he stepped down as creative director at Gucci in 2022. He made another shock when he was named creative director at Valentino in March. This week the designer surprised his followers again with the release of a cruise collection for Valentino months ahead of what was expected to be his first ready-to-wear show for the label in September.
Mr. Michele, once widely admired for incorporating eccentricity and romance into his Gucci designs, was pilloried for reintroducing those very qualities in his inaugural collection for Valentino. On Instagram, a post over the line from industry watchdog Diet Prada received a flood of critical comments.
“A nightmare! RIP Valentino,” read one.
“I can only imagine the horror Mr. Valentino must go through when he sees his once ultra-chic and elegant brand turned into a hot mess,” said another, referring to Valentino’s eponymous founder.
“It’s his Gucci with a Valentino label, same drag show, same weirdness,” said a third.
The collection was in fact an exuberant yet paradoxically disciplined amalgam of sleek 1960s tailoring and 1970s hippie chic. Items like embroidered capes, fur-trimmed coats and ornate kaftans reflected Michele’s familiar aesthetic, as did pieces reminiscent of the smart lunch suits favored in the ’60s by Valentino acolytes like Audrey Hepburn, Princess Margaret of Britain and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
But if you are stripped of decorations such as granny turbans, pearl necklaces and – quelle horreur! – knee-high socks worn with fisherman sandals, Mr. Michele’s Valentino rested on a scaffolding of commercially viable patterns and shapes. That is perhaps why when assessing his contributions, cooler heads are likely to prevail.
As Vogue’s Tiziana Cardini recently put it article“Alessandro is in the styling. But the precision of the construction, the execution, the femininity and the grace are Valentino.”
I’m auctioning off Vivienne Westwood’s wardrobe
British designer Vivienne Westwood, who died in 2022, was known for her fierce renegade spirit. It lives on in many of her clothes, such as an urn-shaped, emerald-colored suit with dramatically curved shoulders; a tartan ensemble from her legendary 1993 Anglomania collection; and, perhaps most spectacularly, a silk taffeta dress with an elaborate corset and two-tiered skirt, from a 1998 collection.
Each of these garments testifies to Ms. Westwood’s twin obsessions with historicism and precise construction. And they can all be found at Christie’s in London as part of “Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection,” a sale and exhibition featuring, as the title suggests, pieces from Ms. Westwood’s label that she herself owned.
The two-part event – a live auction in London on Tuesday and an online sale through June 28 – includes over-the-top but surprisingly durable items: a cotton corset with fanciful tassels; shocking pink satin pajamas; and an imitation pearl choker with a signature rhinestone ball attached, a signature motif of Ms. Westwood. A perfectly tailored Prince of Wales check suit from her eccentrically named 1988 Britain Must Go Pagan collection is also up for grabs.
Adrian Hume-Sayer, director of private collections at Christie’s, said in an email that the auction’s more coveted lots are likely to include the 18th century-inspired corset dress and tiered skirt. Mrs. Westwood carried to a tribute held in her honor by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1998.
Mr Hume-Sayer, who oversees the sale, said his personal favorites were difficult to choose. “Everything has a story and everything resonates.”
