Those are just a handful of famous people who converged upon the Pont Neuf bridge overlooking the Seine river, which served as the spectacular runway for Pharrell’s first Louis Vuitton collection. Across over 70 looks, the newly minted designer made his proposal: the men will wear checks. The pattern appeared in some form across the suits, coats, bomber jackets, boxy shirts (pun intended) and denim pieces that the models wore, with matching shorts or pants. There was Louis Vuitton’s iconic Damier check, of course, but also what Pharrell coined as “Damoflage”—that is, a pixellated camouflage print, which he was decked in as he took his bow at the end of the show.

Those looks were very much in the vein of what Virgil Abloh had produced for the maison. Pharrell’s own flourishes could be better seen in the ensembles that came out in the latter half of the fashion show: knit cardigans that recalled his favourite Chanel jackets; pearl-embellished accessories that seemed to cross both jewellery and sunglasses, and which are perhaps a part of his Tiffany and Co collaboration; and a long, lavish fur coat covered in Louis Vuitton’s monogram. You could easily imagine Pharrell, at the height of his stardom as a musician in the 2000s, flaunting that last piece in one his music videos.