Pharrell's Louis Vuitton Takes a Trip Aboard 'The Darjeeling Limited'
Lesser-known Louis Vuitton lore: then-creative director Marc Jacobs created bespoke Louis Vuitton luggage for Wes Anderson's 2007 flick The Darjeeling Limited. It's a fun footnote in the fashion house's illustrious legacy, one only occasionally referenced amidst all the other major LV moments.
And then there was Pharrell's Spring/Summer 2026 Louis Vuitton menswear collection.
Its overarching motif is one of "present-day Indian sartorialism," according to Louis Vuitton's release, and it's made material by a massive Snakes and Ladders set — a board game originally called Moksha Patam when it was created in India — envisioned by architectural studio Studio Mumbai.
To the strains of an original Pharrell soundtrack, which included a song co-written with The-Dream, a Clipse track (this is a Pharrell joint, after all), and "Get Right, a new Doechii and Tyler, the Creator single, Louis Vuitton premiered a thematic expansion of its "dandy wardrobe."
Denim separates the hue of coffee beans — not dyed but woven, according to Louis Vuitton, implying naturally colored cotton — speak to the deep dyes that appear throughout the collection.
Pre-faded hoodies sit at the more approachable side of the equation while rich checks shaped from bouclé wools perhaps function as a subtle tribute to India's immense textile heritage.
Certainly, the ombré indigo Louis Vuitton handbags seem to speak to India's artisan heritage.
Speaking of bags, how about those Darjeeling Limited trunks?
The animal pattern, created by Anderson's brother Eric Chase, is reinterpreted as embroidery for shirts, fil coupé — a form of high-effort intarsia — for tailoring, and arguably most importantly, atop a handful of veg-tanned leather luggage with the initials for "Louis Vuitton Malletier" in place of where The Darjeeling Limited characters once had printed their own. Those originals were not made for sale but this new collaboration will be.
Underfoot, alongside new iterations of the now-signature Louis Vuitton Buttersoft sneakers and hiking boots influenced by the Himalayas, a handful of new footwear includes a "no-left-no-right super-thin silhouette" and a "voluminous flip-flop" with "bag-inspired construction."
It's not so much Louis Vuitton responding to trends but acting to own them for itself, a move Pharrell and co. made in prior Louis Vuitton collections.
Likewise, when Pharrell came out for his bow at the end of the show, he was clad in a a new colorway of his much-hyped and still-unreleased adidas Jellyfish sneaker. India may have been the Louis Vuitton team's animating factor but it always comes back to Pharrell.
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