“[Williams is] not just an endorser of the company—he’s a day-to-day influence on the brand and very involved in a lot of the biggest decisions that we’re making,” said Doodles CEO Julian Holguin at WebSummit Lisbon in November about its newly appointed Chief Brand Officer.

For Hollywood icon and famed music producer, Pharrell Williams, tapping into his multifaceted ability to reach mainstream audiences through his down-to-earth understanding of today’s popular culture has made the famed musician a high-end value-add to companies like Doodles.

His Instagram following alone, which rests at a whopping 14.3 million, far eclipses that of the heads of today’s high-end fashion houses, including Donatella Versace (9.8 million followers), Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing (9 million followers), and Jacquemus (5.3 million followers). 

And that’s one of the main reasons why Williams was just tapped again – this time, to lead Louis Vuitton’s entire menswear line as its newly appointed creative director and the first African American to be named the head designer of a European luxury fashion brand, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

On February 14, the French fashion brand announced that the 13-time Grammy award winner would be “coming back home” after his previous 2004 and 2008 collaborations to lead Louis Vuitton “towards a new and very exciting chapter.”

Williams’ new position had been vacant for over a year since the November 2021 passing of Virgil Abloh, who had been Louis Vuitton’s creative director since 2018. 

Kicking off 2023, Williams teased an upcoming collaboration with Tiffany’s, repping diamond-studded sunglasses, with confirmation of a future co-designed piece of Tiffany jewelry. 

His first collection for Louis Vuitton will take place during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris this June. 

With Louis Vuitton’s recent announcement, there is another question that remains unanswered – could we see a future Doodles collaboration or integration of the blue-chip NFT project into the future LV menswear line?

During NFT.NYC 2022, Doodles announced that it had appointed Williams as its new Chief Brand Officer, who would also produce a future NFT-inspired album titled Doodles Records: Volume 1, in partnership with Columbia Records. 

The colorful 10,000-piece NFT collection now serves as one of the largest, most successful digital collectibles projects on the market. Last September, Doodles announced the closing of its $54 million USD funding round at a $704 million USD valuation, led by Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian and his VC firm, Seven Seven Six. 

Earlier this month, Doodles debuted its Doodles 2 product line, in addition to sharing that it joined forces with Golden Wolf animation studio to help bring the Doodles brand into mainstream entertainment through new types of content. 

Ultimately, it’s not out of the question for the Web3 community to ponder how Doodles and Louis Vuitton could creatively work together now that Williams leads the creative direction of both household brands. 

One Paris-based fashion professor, Benjamin Simmenauer, told Quartz that Williams’ new role with LV expands the traditional model of the “artistic director” who is now focused on “image,” rather than couturier.

“[Williams] knows how to capture coolness,” Simmenauer emphasized. 

Could Williams truly be the future of modernized fashion?

In other news, Napster just acquired Mint Songs in its first steps into Web3.