Pharrell Opens Vuitton’s Monogram Anniversary Year With Cinematic Menswear Show

A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2026/2027 collection by US designer Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2026. (EPA)
A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2026/2027 collection by US designer Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2026. (EPA)
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Pharrell Opens Vuitton’s Monogram Anniversary Year With Cinematic Menswear Show

A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2026/2027 collection by US designer Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2026. (EPA)
A model presents a creation from the Fall/Winter 2026/2027 collection by US designer Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton during the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 20 January 2026. (EPA)

Pharrell Williams opened a celebration year for Louis Vuitton's monogram — marking the house’s 130th anniversary of its most recognizable signature — with a Fall-Winter 2026 men’s show that was equal parts brand pageant and movie set.

Inside the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, the guests encircled the grassy runway. At its center sat a glass-walled, minimalist apartment — part bedroom, part display box — where models kept entering and exiting like characters crossing movie scenes.

It was also a celebrity-heavy room, with a front row mixing music, film and online fame — SZA, Usher, Future, Jackson Wang and others, plus a runway debut to seal the crossover: BamBam of Korean boy band GOT7.

The soundtrack did as much scene-setting as the set. A gospel choir and full orchestra performed live from the balconies, lifting what could have been a straightforward runway lap into something closer to a staged sequence: romantic, controlled, faintly grand.

On the clothes, Williams stayed inside his Vuitton DNA: readable from a distance, richer up close, and always tethered to the idea of travel and the house’s heritage goods.

This season’s lens was 1970s ease spiked with utility. The palette sat firmly in autumn-tonal grays, browns, black, denim, cream — then broke into jolts of bubblegum pink, baby blue and emerald green that kept the mood from turning too polite.

It was Vuitton in full brand mode: monogram year messaging, hero outerwear, high-gloss accessories, and a set built for cameras.

Silhouettes ran long and loose, with baggier trousers that swung into an A-line sweep; suits were often topped with parka coats, a high-low collision that has become one of his signatures.

The details — always his style argument — did the work.

Shirts flashed with glimmering surfaces.

Bows and jabot-style collars delivered the 70s note without going costume.

Utility came through in the hardware language: ties, toggles, belts, zippers; faux-fur collars that read both functional and decorative.

Patent Oxford shoes added a hard, glossy punctuation under the softer shapes.

A monogrammed puffer arrived as the obvious anniversary-era hero item.

Williams also pushed a slightly “undone” finish — wrinkled tops that looked intentionally lived-in rather than sloppy — while widening the fit menu beyond the season’s broader swing toward slimness: skin-tight knits, cleanly fitted suits and oversized tailored shorts.

Then came the Vuitton wink at travel as culture-object: an Art Nouveau travel case in stained glass, rolled through on a trolley — absurd, beautiful, and perfectly on-message for a house that still sells the idea of departure as luxury.



Zara Owner Inditex Posts Record Profit in 2025

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
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Zara Owner Inditex Posts Record Profit in 2025

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez

Zara owner Inditex, the world's leading low-cost fashion retailer, posted a record annual profit for the third year running on Wednesday, seeing off strong international competition.

The Spanish group, which includes top brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Bershka, reported a profit of 6.22 billion euros ($7.23 billion) in the fiscal year ending January 31.

That marked a six percent rise on the 5.9 billion it raked in in 2024, which was also a group record, Inditex said.


Margot Robbie, Oprah Watch Blazy Transform Chanel with Color and Craft

Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
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Margot Robbie, Oprah Watch Blazy Transform Chanel with Color and Craft

Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection of French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 09 March 2026. (EPA)

Chanel 's Matthieu Blazy is still building. Six months into his tenure at the Parisian stalwart, the designer staged his second ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week Monday, where brightly colored cranes rose from a holographic floor — a deliberate signal that the construction is ongoing.

For Parisians who have spent years staring at the real thing above Notre-Dame cathedral, the set was perhaps less dreamy than intended.

The audience inside the Grand Palais suggested the foundations are solid: Margot Robbie, Oprah, Jennie, Kylie Minogue, Lily-Rose Depp, Teyana Taylor and Olivia Dean all turned up to watch the next floor go on.

Blazy took his cue from a quote from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel: “We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly.”

The collection was structured around that tension — plain against spectacular, function against fantasy — with a discipline his sprawling debut last October sometimes lacked.

The opening looks were austere by design. Black knit zip-ups, tweed blousons and boxy overshirts arrived with little more than four gold buttons to signal they belonged to Chanel.

In the vast runway space, they could read as underwhelming. But Blazy’s point was architectural: the suit, he said, is “the first brick” — and everything else rises from it.

That logic tracks to the founder.

In her apartment on Rue Cambon, a wall is covered in gauze painted gold — something poor made precious.

Chanel built a house on that idea, borrowing from everyday dress and elevating it. Blazy is doing the same with her codes, stripping the suit to a knit shirt jacket or pressed-tweed blouson before rebuilding it in silicone-woven fabric and metallic mesh.

The collection’s most provocative move was its silhouette. Blazy pulled waistlines dramatically low — belts slung to mid-thigh, pleated skirts starting where blazers ended.

The references were retro flapper filtered through a modern lens: drop-waisted twinsets, patchwork dresses with floral embroidery, vivid patterned knits with a twenties pulse.

A furry coat in bold geometric color could have been worn in a chic part of London's Camden.

Whether the ultra-low waistlines will land with the well-heeled clients who pack Chanel’s front rows is another question. Selling a radically new proportion to women with deep loyalty to the house is a different challenge than winning critical praise.

The final stretch answered that concern with force. Sequined plaid suits arrived in dazzling color. Beaded coats glinted with star-chart embroidery. Metallic mesh was woven to mimic tweed motifs, and several models wore pastel-tinted hair to match their looks.

Fabric flowers burst from bodices. Trailing ribbons, layered ruffles, and insect-wing detailing turned the runway into something closer to spectacle than commerce.

Blazy cast wide — teens through to women in their fifties — and let the show breathe, with a runway circuit that took models the better part of five minutes. He framed it all with seven pared-back black and cream looks, as if to say: whatever else changes, the Chanel you know isn’t going anywhere.

If this second outing holds — on the penultimate day of fashion week — Blazy has found something rare at a heritage house: a way to honor the founder’s voice without simply echoing it.


Hugo Boss Posts Annual Profit Above Expectations

The logo of German fashion company Hugo Boss is seen at a store in Vienna, Austria, November 23, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of German fashion company Hugo Boss is seen at a store in Vienna, Austria, November 23, 2016. (Reuters)
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Hugo Boss Posts Annual Profit Above Expectations

The logo of German fashion company Hugo Boss is seen at a store in Vienna, Austria, November 23, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of German fashion company Hugo Boss is seen at a store in Vienna, Austria, November 23, 2016. (Reuters)

German fashion group Hugo Boss reported a higher than expected annual operating profit on Tuesday, despite a challenging market environment.

The company reported earnings ‌before interest ‌and taxes (EBIT) of ‌391 ⁠million euros ($455 million) ⁠for 2025, up from 361 million euros a year earlier, and above analyst's average forecast of 379 million euros in a company-provided ⁠poll.

"2025 once again highlighted ‌the ‌rapid transformation of our industry, shaped by ‌technological innovation, evolving consumer preferences ‌and ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty," Chief Executive Officer Daniel Grieder said in a statement.

Luxury groups ‌have been struggling with tighter consumer spending, with the ⁠sector ⁠hit by slowing demand for fashion and accessories particularly in the US and China.

The premium fashion retailer said it will propose a dividend of 0.04 euros per share for 2025, compared with 1.40 euros a year earlier.