For Spring-Summer 2026, Louis Vuitton embarks on a mind-expanding voyage from Paris to India, led by Pharrell Williams and grounded in the spirit of cultural synthesis. Staged before the Centre Pompidou—soon to undergo a five-year renovation—the show unfolded on a life-sized Snakes And Ladders board conceived by Studio Mumbai’s Bijoy Jain, weaving together symbolism, architecture, and play.

Pharrell invites us to think less about clothes and more about context—what we wear when we’re searching, how fabric holds memory, how tradition can be borrowed without being emptied out. The show is a constellation of meanings: ladders as aspiration, snakes as chance, silhouettes as questions, sun as storyteller.

A dialogue with Indian sartorialism takes center stage. Garments bloom in sun-faded silks, llama-wool blends, and metal yarn checks, filtered through the Studio Homme’s lens of tactical dandyism. Tailoring walks the line between heritage and spontaneity, while “glamping” looks fuse Himalaya-ready outerwear with LV embellishment.

The Darjeeling Limited’s luggage—originally created for Wes Anderson’s 2007 film—makes its runway debut, reimagined as embroidery, print, and monogram across tailoring, knitwear, and accessories. Footwear spans everything from pastel ostrich derbies to gem-encrusted skate shoes, A new suite of exceptional bags glows in crocodile, ostrich, and faded denim; chess sets and wearable trunks gleam with pearls and stones.

The palette is sun-kissed: purples instead of blacks, denim in coffee hues, and weather-worn graphics recalling Indian city signage. Pharrell’s soundtrack—featuring Voices of Fire, A.R. Rahman, Doechii, and Tyler, the Creator— underscores a collection where time, craft, and culture collide. It’s hard to tell where the set ends and where the collection begins—where costume becomes real, where mythology gives way to tenderness. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe this is travel, not just in place, but in the feeling.