Playboi Carti conquers the Paris runway

Playboi Carti, a 21-year-old rapper from Atlanta, slouched in the curtained back seat with braids dangling over his eyes, silently absorbing the view while blaring his latest album, “Die Lit,” which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart.

“I took you out the ‘hood / I took you to my shows,” he raps in the song “Home.” “We took a lot of pics, and now we look like goals.”

It was the morning of June 21 during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, and Playboi Carti (born Jordan Carter) was headed to the Jardin du Palais Royal to walk in the Louis Vuitton show. It was the ballyhooed first collection from Virgil Abloh, consigliere to Kanye West, founder of Off-White and Louis Vuitton’s first African-American artistic director.

Playboi Carti was joined in the show by a diverse group of models, musicians (Dev Hynes, Kid Cudi, Octavian and ASAP Nast) and artist Lucien Smith. If Abloh’s roots in the streetwear universe drew some clucking from the fashion world’s haughtier roosts, few would deny that a meaningful day was unfolding.

“This is black history,” Playboi Carti said. “It’s monumental. This is Louis. This is the top dog. No disrespect to Vetements, but my mom, my dad, my auntie, my great-grandmother know what Louis is.”

He pulled up to the park around 11 a.m. with his manager, bodyguard and a buddy who wore a red Balenciaga fanny pack. Abloh greeted him, and they strolled to the foot of the runway, a gradient rainbow path that went the entire length of the 17th-century courtyard. A camera crane arched overhead, as if threatening to pluck a human trinket from a bowling alley game.

While Playboi Carti has modeled for Off-White and Yeezy, these stakes were higher. With several hours to go before showtime, an event producer led him on a dry run down the runway flanked with lime trees. “Strong walk,” she said, sidling along as he reached the end. “Stay focused, you’re still visible. There’s like 20 cameras on you and drones everywhere.”

He would be closing the show, making him last to walk, but also first for the finale, when all the models march together. It was an enviable slot, and it made sense. He is a 6-foot-2 spray of limbs and braids, blending the cool stoniness of early 1990s Snoop Dogg with the wide-eyed twitchiness of youth incarnate.

“He has an intangible quality,” Abloh said. “His quiet presence and command of energy makes him a perfect model in my mind. He oozes potential.”

Playboi Carti was born in Atlanta and raised in Riverdale, Georgia. He attracted attention, like many rappers of his generation, through SoundCloud. In 2017, he released a self-titled major-label debut, which included that summer’s bouncy anthem “Magnolia.” His first sobriquet was Prince Cartier, a twist on his last name, but also indicative of a budding interest in fashion and luxury brands.

Taking a smoke break under one of the ornate archways, he recalled searching Google for “Cartier” in his early teens. “You just see jets, gold, fancy watches, a lifestyle,” he said. “It caught my eye when I was a young boy. I didn’t have Cartier. I didn’t have Gucci, Louis, none of that. I most definitely have great expectations for myself, but I didn’t know I’d be here.”

With the 2:30 p.m. show approaching, the white staging tent erected along the southern Galerie du Jardin became a hive of activity. Young men awaiting haircuts and makeup were draped across couches in stages of repose.

Playboi Carti, who was still in his street clothes (a yellow-and-black ensemble by Vlone), had his facial hair groomed by a heavily tattooed barber and his braids oiled. A manicurist struggled to remove the gel coating on his nails, which were decorated with yellow smiley faces.

In the three-hour interim between the rehearsal and the show, he mostly hung out with ASAP Nast, sampling postage-stamp-size canapés and a tiny bagel. Unimpressed, he wondered aloud, “Can I get some McDonald’s or something?” A production assistant darted out of the tent. Soon, two heaping bags of McDonald’s chicken nuggets arrived with a greasy waft.

At last, it was time. Playboi Carti donned his Vuitton look: a reflective silver poncho, jeans emblazoned with characters from “The Wizard of Oz” on the yellow brick road, black sneakers and a turquoise necklace. “It’s fire,” he said of the poncho.

Accompanied by music from Kanye West’s latest album, “Ye,” and a live performance by instrumental band BadBadNotGood, models began unveiling crocodile totes, sheer shirts and white leather coats. Playboi Carti was quiet, maybe even nervous, as he waited backstage, the last of 56 models. Abloh gave him a final touch-up.

About five minutes later, Playboi Carti emerged from the tent and gleamed in the afternoon sun. He strode purposefully past thousands of camera-wielding spectators, brand fanatics swinging Vuitton purses, fashion editors and celebrities, including West, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian West, Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Russell Westbrook. A drone buzzed above, as he approached the Galerie de Beaujolais, veered left and vanished.

As the crowd applauded and frantically Instagrammed, he reappeared to lead a single-file army of models back down the runway. Still hard-eyed and expressionless, he hit all his marks.

Moments later, he was back in the tent, whooping and hugging other models. The meniscus of tension had burst. Instead of brooding human wire hangers, they were rappers and skaters and rawboned teenagers again. He changed back into his street clothes and grabbed his look card, perhaps as a souvenir.

What did he think of his moment under the Paris sun? “I was just trying not to laugh,” he said. “Straight face. That’s the only thing you can do. You can’t fall.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Playboi Carti conquers the Paris runway

PARIS — The black Rolls-Royce Phantom cut through Parisian streets like a hammerhead shark, circling the Arc de Triomphe, gliding along the Seine and nosing past the Louvre’s glass pyramid.

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