What’s Happening: All eyes were on Williams as the new Louis Vuitton menswear creative director pulled back the curtain on his inaugural collection at a star-studded runway show in Paris. But do the clothes live up to the hype?

The Download: Virgil Abloh often cited Pharrell Williams as a role model, a creative polymath who refused to be boxed in. Williams found his footing as a music-industry mega-producer, but his influence slowly seeped into luxury fashion, from splashy collabs with Chanel, Moncler, and Adidas Originals to launching Billionaire Boys Club and the skincare line Human Race. Abloh embarked on a similar trajectory, which culminated in him taking the top job at Louis Vuitton. So when the LVMH-owned maison announced Williams would succeed Abloh after his 2021 death, it proved the Arnaults were thinking big—a bet on the power of cultural capital and a firm intent to pick up where Abloh left off.

Some view Williams’ appointment as a reflection of Louis Vuitton’s penchant for celebrity and spectacle rather than directional design. Nevertheless, Williams is taking his role seriously. The self-described “perpetual student” quickly got to work at the Louis Vuitton men’s atelier in Paris, which overlooks Pont Neuf, where his first collection debuted earlier this week. The weight of the moment—he’s the first musician to be given such a weighty platform in luxury fashion, let alone the crown jewel of a $462 billion conglomerate, and its second consecutive Black creative director—wasn’t lost. Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Beyoncé all showed up, bearing witness to the new chapter unfolding on one of Paris’s busiest thoroughfares.

As for the clothes, Williams hewed closely to Louis Vuitton’s tried-and-true iconography while injecting his own personal style. There was a bit of everything—pearl-lined tracksuits, trunks clad in copper, and denim separates embroidered with micro-motifs of faces by artist Henry Taylor. The label’s damier motif was front-and-center but refreshed, yielding pixelated camo patterns on coats that skewed cryptopunk. He may have even debuted Louis Vuitton’s new it-bag, a leather riff on the classic Speedy reimagined in primary colors. Negative criticism is inevitable, but he seems unbothered: “I’m a student,” he says. “Students learn.”

In Their Own Words: “When you come from a culture that has been purposefully blocked and set in disadvantaged situations, you can’t imagine what’s even possible,” Williams tells British Vogue of the moment’s weight. “But there’s this narrative that’s changing. So many of us are being swept up from one place and landing in fertile soil in other places, and being treated and watered and sunned like all souls should be. There’s an impact, which is changing. It’s not enough, but it’s happening. I’m honored to be part of that.”

Surface Says: A solid debut, but we’d love to see Williams divert a little from Louis Vuitton iconography. His knack for experimentation shaped the sound of popular music—perhaps he can follow suit in fashion if he just stretches his legs.

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Leah Ring and Holland Denvir launched “Object Permanence” as a way to breathe some life into L.A.’s emerging design sphere on their own terms. Each quarter, designers created one work based on a household object—clocks, candlesticks, ping-pong paddles—and presented them at one-night-only exhibitions.

After a two-year pause, the series is returning on Saturday at LAUN’s showroom with a dozen designers (Studio Sam Klemick, Constance Hockaday, Ben Tetro) riffing on the piggy bank. Sales proceeds will go toward Haven Neighborhood Services, a local organization that provides financial education to high-risk communities. As we grapple with economic uncertainty, saving for a rainy day seems more important than ever—and it all started with our childhood piggy banks.

Is return to office entering the desperation phase? Bullish on the belief that better work happens in person, tech giants are testing unorthodox tactics to wean employees back into daily attendance. Policies from Google, Lyft, and Amazon have all sparked internal backlash, but none seems more desperate than SalesForce. The software behemoth announced that, over a ten-day period, it’s making a $10 charitable donation for every employee who comes into the office. That’s quite the about-face for a company that declared “the 9-to-5 workday is dead,” but struggling businesses in downtown cores could surely use the foot traffic.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

In Argentina, Inflation Passes 100% (and the Restaurants Are Packed) [New York Times]

NASA Mission to Prevent “Internet Apocalypse” Which Could Leave People Offline for Months [Mirror]

Blood-Red Crickets Invade Nevada Town, Residents Fight Back With Brooms, Leaf Blowers, Snow Plows [AP]

A Restaurant Must Pay Workers $140,000 After Allegedly Hiring a Fake Priest to Extract Confessions of Workers’ “Sins” [CNN]

Global Network of Sadistic Monkey Torture Exposed by BBC [BBC]

Boss Who Paid Worker’s Final Salary in Oily Pennies Ordered to Give Ex-Staffers More Than $39,000 [People]

I’m a Poop Artist—Check Out My Crappy Paintings [New York Post]

This past summer, the V&A debuted the critically acclaimed show “Africa Fashion” that opens today at the Brooklyn Museum. To mark the occasion, the institution is hosting the first-ever pop-up of Lagos-based concept shop Alára. Fashion and home decor from more than 100 of the continent’s leading designers are on offer, as well as U.S. labels within the African diaspora. Highlights include vibrant serving dishes by Yinka Ilori, Jean Servais Somian’s timber wall mirrors, and more.

The digital artist, who created his most recent show with AI, uses the oeuvre of fictional impressionist painter Chester Charles to explore how social constructs warp art history.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Name: ClownVamp

Where you’re based: New York

Title of work: Two Sailors.

Where to see it: It was on display earlier this week at Canvas3 at the Oculus and is now online at SuperRare.

Three words to describe it: Joyful, loud, green!

What was on your mind at the time: This work is part of an AI-assisted series that tells the story of a fictitious queer artist from the 1800s through an imagined retrospective. Here I’m trying to conceive scenes of gay joy he may have witnessed, even if briefly.

For 40 years, Janus et Cie has served clients with a focus on quality, craftsmanship, and unparalleled service. Janus et Cie maintains 19 flagship showrooms in North America, Singapore, Sydney, and Milan, as well as field offices and select dealers.

Surface Says: Janus et Cie produces furniture that embodies quality and excellence. Part of the company’s appeal is its commitment to sustainability—proving that recycled wood, plastic, and upholstery can be deluxe when in the right hands.

This interactive scroll illustrates the ocean’s fascinating, terrifying depths.

Margot Robbie’s body double in the Barbie film dishes on the experience.

You can now visit the Roman square where Julius Caesar was stabbed.

The UK’s most remote pub is offering free beers to hikers who can find it.