Last week, Louis Vuitton celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Millionaires sunglasses under the creative direction of Pharrell Williams. If you were an eagle-eyed eyewear nerd, you might have noticed the musician and designer donning the fashionable frames at Spring/Summer 2025 men’s fashion week in June. But we're here to tell you more about them if you didn't.
The latest Millionaires line features two distinct models, the 1.0 and the 3.0. The first closely mirrors the initial design that dropped in 2004, and the 3.0 adds in a bougie design flex, applying the type of cutting-edge carbon fibre you'd find in cars but for your face.
But these super sick designer specs go way back, being one of Pharrell's early design ventures at Louis Vuitton. In 2004, when Marc Jacobs was revamping Louis Vuitton from a luxury luggage brand into a fashion force to be reckoned with, he tapped a load of his uber-creative pals to push a new kind of luxury into the zeitgeist.
Jacobs got Stephen Sprouse to give the LV Monogram a graffiti makeover, and Takashi Murakami injected LV's legacy designs with a splash colour that proved catnip for IT girls. As part of Jacobs' massive rebranding of Louis Vuitton, he got Pharrell and Nigo on board to design a capsule of eyewear in 2004. One style that stood out from the capsule was the Millionaire style, which retailed for $1200 at the time of release. Now, 20 years later, they're back and look as good as ever, serving as a testament to the design's legacy and the creative strength of both Nigo and Pharrell.
This isn't the first time the Louis Vuitton Millionaires have been referenced. In 2019, Virgil Abloh reinterpreted the style in his debut collection for the Maison, swapping the aviator style for a chunky square shape. Still, the silhouette's trunk-inspired hinges and arms remained the same. The Millionaires' return offers an archival look back into Pharrell's early involvement with LV as the Maison was shifting into the zeitgeist, where Marc Jacobs furthered the brand's cultural appeal alongside a killer list of collaborators.
If you want to live your Y2K designer dreams, the 1.0 Millionaires will set you back less than a million quid, but still pricey £565.00. Meanwhile, the updated 3.0 Millionaires are available for £1,530.00.
More on Culted
See: Still waiting for that Frank Ocean album? Listen to these artists to see you through
