I met with a new friend earlier this week, a longtime journalist, now doing other things. We got to talking about Pharrell at Louis Vuitton, which we both think looks good, and makes sense. She compared Louis Vuitton to a Marvel franchise, an analogy I’ve made in my head many times, largely because larger-than-life comic book franchises started to take over Hollywood a couple decades ago, around the time when conglomerates began to rule fashion. And while Hollywood’s risk aversion (and the rise of the platforms) hasn’t quite obviated independent film, it’s made them harder to finance. The same phenomenon, of course, is true with independent fashion labels.