The very fine Corbis shooter Stephane Cardinale snagged the portrait of the Vuitton menswear boss Pharrell Williams executing a crisp drill-sergeant’s valedictory at review as his show finished on – no lie – a man-made beach with a 30-foot-tall waterfall masquerading as a monster wave about to break, complete with some illusory foam at its peak. The models, and Pharrell, emerged from a sly curtain from within the wave, which was built to look as if it very much threatened to break onto Vuitton’s double front row. The June 23 venue was an outdoor one in a courtyard space on Paris’ own Cite Internationale Universitaire’s sprawling campus in the 14th Arondissement.
Sporting a no-nonsense bespoke khaki suit and his man-sized kelly green Vuitton backpack, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama is cool, collected and seemingly well-past his team’s recent loss in the NBA finals in the Vuitton arrivals area. Talk about some good drape by good fabric. That one-button (!) jacket with its almost-a-tailcoat cut swerving out at the beltline to wrap the hips is screaming couture. Man is quietly stylish.
Not so quiet but definitly stylish in a shiny bluefin-belly-white tie on a generously cut matte, gun-blue dress shirt is the spirited Jeremy Allen White, pictured above taking a quick smoke break at Vuitton on June 23.
Was it Wemby drawing all the other players to Paris? What was it? Was there a secret afterparty at some point with a height restriction – no man under 6’-8″ allowed inside? Whatever else the France’s heat dome accomplished this past week – and it did wreak some deadly havoc – the basketball players showed up.