Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, spearheaded by designer Pharrell Williams, created a splash last week when it was presented during Paris Fashion Week in an Indian-inspired set. Immersing guests in the spirit of The Golden Sparrow were visual elements imagined by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai—an atmosphere designed not to frame Louis Vuitton‘s show but make the show.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Pharrell Williams, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Louis Vuitton and Studio Mumbai Design for Centre Pompidou Show
Unveiled within the monumental exterior of the Centre Pompidou—currently closed for a five-year renovation—the show hosted a runway embedded with dialogue: an ode to impermanence, earth, and India’s unmissable beauty. Jain, known for his contemplative practice and spiritual materiality, rendered the set in raw stone, hand-woven lattices, lime-plastered structures, and ephemeral bamboo scaffolding. The walls filtered the sunlight, casting shadows that moved in rhythm with the garments. And the soundscape—curated by sound artist Jessika Kenney—featured water droplets, rustling reeds, and low wooden chimes, accentuating the meditative silence that enveloped the audience in bits of India. Both ancient and modern, it was an atmosphere where fashion and nature were intertwined.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
This wasn’t just a tribute to craft, though; it was a board game come to life. Designed as a full-scale rendition of Snakes and Ladders, the ancient Indian game born as a mandala in the second century, the set symbolized the philosophical underpinnings of life’s highs and lows. Painted on a wood surface coated with clay slip in burnt umber pigment, its checkered geometry was outlined with taut white lime lines. At the center, five serpents—each hand-drawn and uniquely shaped—slithered across the board, forming what Jain described as “a cosmic map set in the piazza of Centre Pompidou in Paris.”
Bijoy Jain and Pharrell Williams, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
“I am grateful and privileged to embark on this journey with Pharrell in realizing his vision for the Spring 2026 show, expressed as a Snakes and Ladders game,”
—Bijoy Jain
“I am grateful and privileged to embark on this journey with Pharrell in realizing his vision for the Spring 2026 show, expressed as a Snakes and Ladders game,” Jain said. “The set design—a 1:1 wood model—is rendered and colored with raw pigments… the lines and serpents inscribed across the surface with lime and gesso drawings.”
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Pharrell Inspired by India
For Pharrell, the concept was personal and metaphorical. “India has always inspired me—it’s where Snakes and Ladders was born, and the game felt like the perfect metaphor for life: the climbs, the falls, the lessons,” he shared. “I had imagined the set as a living Snakes and Ladders board—something more than a stage, something symbolic and alive. This collaboration was a meeting of minds—human, intentional, and full of spirit.”
“This collaboration was a meeting of minds—human, intentional, and full of spirit,”
—Pharrell
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Although India embraces ornamentalism and adornment, not much about the show was ornamental. Every beam carried the mark of a human hand—an artisanry India is well known for. The floor, for instance, was a surface of river clay and compressed jute, shifting subtly under the feet of models and guests, reminding everyone that the earth is alive. Above this imaginative ground, Pharrell presented a collection that pulsed with the same ethos. Linen suits were sun-bleached, silks mimicked the dappled play of light through latticework, and embroidery borrowed ancient textile traditions from Gujarat.
Bijoy Jain, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
About Bijoy Jain
Bijoy Jain, born in 1965 in Mumbai, studied at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He worked in Los Angeles and London before returning to India in 1995 and founding Studio Mumbai. The studio operates as an interdisciplinary group of architects, engineers, master builders, artisans, technicians and artists across continents.As a collective, they are involved in the research and development of projects, using process and time as an integral part of its expression; water air and light being the basis of all materiality in the synthesis of the work… Humankind in nature – nature in Humankind.
Bijoy Jain teaches at the Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He also taught as a visiting professor at Yale University in the United States and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University, Belgium, for his contribution to the architectural profession. In 2017, he received the RIBA International Fellowship in London.
