Experience Pharrell's Inaugural Collaboration in Fragrance With LVERS

The attempt to encapsulate sunshine in a bottle.

As Pharrell Williams marks over a year as the Men's Creative Director at Louis Vuitton since February, he is distinctly establishing a new identity, demonstrating his ability to guide the esteemed House into realms that captivate the attention of the fashion industry and beyond. His creative cognition has thus far resulted in a rethinking of the legacy pre-monogram Damier design into the pixelated “Damoflage” on trunks and luggage, as well as the popular multicolored Speedy Bags in supple leather. Notably, his prominent position as a music business titan has facilitated a novel convergence between fashion and pop culture, exemplified by the presence of Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, and The Carters at his premiere presentation.

Notably, his year-long tenure has demonstrated a preference for thematically anchored works intended to convey abstract concepts to the user. Upon the announcement of his initial venture into perfumery at Louis Vuitton, commencing in 2014, as a collaborative dialogue with Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud—an in-house perfumer from Grasse, France, the epicenter of fragrance—it was unsurprising that LVERS is a scent crafted with meticulous precision to encapsulate the conceptual.

In a skillful reference to his inaugural exhibition on Pont Neuf in 2023, Williams and Belletrud reinforce the thematic significance of the sun—its essential role in Williams’ brand vision—and his effort to convey the warmth and sense of opportunity it symbolizes to the public. The duo commenced their collaborative endeavor by revisiting the foundation of William’s debut exhibition from the previous year and his notably positive credo that urged us to contemplate, “What will you do when the sun shines on you?”. Williams compared his appointment as Creative Director to being illuminated by the sun, a chance he could not decline and chose to embrace. As all elements in nature evolve and develop, Williams’ initial thinking similarly transformed; in collaboration with Belletrud, they refined the concept of photosynthesis as the origin of life.

From this concept of photosynthesis, the duo endeavored to encapsulate this abstraction of life's vitality in a bottled format. Belletrud, as the Master Perfumer, commenced his examination of the olfactory characteristics of this concept through an alchemical analysis, discerning the scent profiles that emerged from the vitalization of flora under sunlight, specifically the leaves illuminated by sunrays, the nectar of newly sprouted grass, and the earthiness of tree trunks.

In these thoughts, olfactory components such as the rarely utilized Galbanum—a verdant resin from the Ferula plant historically employed for medical purposes in Ancient Greece—were refined into the resinous and piquant core notes of the fragrance. Cedarwood constitutes the base note of LVERS, its woody, camphorous scent evoking a woodland ambiance, harmonized with the invigorating zest of ginger and the creamy smoothness of sandalwood, resulting in a profound earthiness. Each type of wood exemplifies the healing properties of the sun, with cedarwood employed in Ancient Egypt for preservation and sandalwood (together with ginger) regarded as essential in Eastern medicine. The LVERS bouquet is enhanced with the aroma of bergamot—a crisp citrus top note esteemed globally as a restorative agent for both mental and physical rejuvenation.

The architecture of LVERS evokes the reflecting and refractive qualities of sunshine — a golden liquid contained within the iconic cylindrical form of Louis Vuitton’s Les Parfums. The glass structure features a prismatic finish, and the overall composition of the Eau de Parfum evokes the shimmer of sunshine on skin. LVERS has been introduced alongside a travel case featuring a Damoflage theme and a fragrance trunk, the latter designed to hold three bottles of the fragrance. In conclusion, Pharrell Williams and Jacques Cavallier Belletrud’s LVERS emerges as a comprehensive endeavor to encapsulate a transient emotion—one that is sometimes overlooked—akin to the sensation of sunlight on our skin.

Accessible at select Louis Vuitton boutiques and on louisvuitton.com