Pharrell Williams – Costume designer who succeeds Virgil Abloh as creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear in February 2023, just over a year after his death; Grammy-winning record producer who created Justin Timberlake’s Pop masterpieces like Justified (2002) and Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury (2006); the musician and performer casually throws French electronic duo Daft Punk called “Robot” and Karl Lagerfeld “Karl” – he didn’t like to talk about himself. “It’s definitely Dante’s Inferno,” he said by phone in June, days after he lit up the Pont Neuf in Paris for his debut for the French fashion house. At one point, it seemed like he might drop the conversation altogether. “It’s like voicemail syndrome,” he said. “I mean, do you like listening to yourself on voicemail?”
Williams, 50, grew up in Virginia Beach, the son of a handyman father, Pharaoh, and a schoolteacher mother, Caroline. It was there that he met many lifelong collaborators, including his Neptunes producing partner Chad Hugo, a duo that has been to hip-hop over the past 30 years what the Funk Brothers were to Motown in the 1960s. same importance. A dedicated polymath, Williams constantly shifts between styles, genres and media, bringing out his best and most creative self in front of the water. He grew up in a residential project called Atlantis, right next to the beach; today, he hosts an annual music and arts festival in Virginia Beach called “Something in the Water.” When he’s not in Miami on Key Biscayne, he spends time in Paris, where he maintains a music studio at LVMH headquarters overlooking the Seine.
At the top: “It was shot in Los Angeles last year, just a few months before the Louis Vuitton announcement. The producer and the creative director are similar. I can go from clothes to drums, bags to melodies. In my design In the studio, I have a section dedicated to music, so I’m going back and forth all day.”
Left and right: “I want to communicate with [the American artist] Henry Taylor [whose paintings, one of which is shown here, were embroidered onto garments and bags from Williams’s first collection for Louis Vuitton]. I have not forgotten that this appointment was given to another black man from America. It’s very important to us, you know, following our brother Virgil’s return to the stars. I think it’s important that we continue to tell interesting stories. I don’t have an agenda – I am the agenda. I hope not only those who look like me, but also those who don’t look inspired by this moment. Working with an artist like Henry Taylor helps tell that story. “
left: “This was shot last year at the Chanel Africa show. [Williams was a brand ambassador from 2014 to 2022.] We went to Dakar, Senegal and I wore a new pair [Adidas] samba.A few years ago, I asked Carl [Lagerfeld, Chanel’s longtime creative director who died in 2019] Taking the house to Africa, he said we would go, but he passed before we got a chance. “
center: “My eldest son [Rocket, pictured here with Williams at Disney World in 2012] Make a beat.us [Pharrell and his wife, the model and fashion designer Helen Williams] And triplets. This is three. We say it is very beautiful, strong, very beautiful. ”
correct: “We turned a house in Miami into a studio. I don’t know [when we set it up], but it has been several years. I’m terrible with chronology: I live in the present, but I deal with the future and I get lost in the past. In Miami, it’s all about the weather and humidity. This has always been very inspiring to me. Recording on water is fun, and it might sound like a bender, but it’s not. ”
left: “In this appointment at Vuitton, I’m like a forever student. If I’m the king of everything, it’s the king of students. I know I want to work for Damir [the brand’s signature checkerboard pattern].I’ve always liked pixelated camouflage so we did it with Damier to upgrade it and that’s how we got Damouflage [pictured here on a model during a fitting earlier this year]. It’s best to have so many talented people around you. I mean, I’m an Aries, so I’m always super impulsive. But without the resources and talent, I’m like everyone else with a great idea. “
center: “As a kid, I listened to a lot of records my aunt played at her house. The Parliament-Funkadelic songs blew my mind. I also thought [Kraftwerk’s sixth studio album] Trans-Europe Express (1977) took place around that time. Atlantis is like a neighborhood in this bubble. Here, the music is everything, and when certain songs come on, it’s like a musical is happening right in front of you. You either become a part of it, or you stand by. ”
correct: “This photo was taken earlier this year at Le Café V [a Louis Vuitton cafe in Osaka]. Japan is my favorite place.On my 50th lap of the track I had a birthday party organized by [the Tokyo-based artistic director of Kenzo and hip-hop producer] Nigo. One of the most amazing gifts was his presence in my life. Twenty years ago, I needed to go to Japan to record something, so Nigo arranged for me to go to his studio, which was basically a five-story compound. There was a showroom on one floor, a photo studio on one, and a recording studio on the other, and I was like, ‘Wow, this guy lives in his head. ’ This changed me. I’m so used to bragging because that’s the world I come from. Then I met Nigo, who said almost nothing. He didn’t have to. There is humility in the air in Tokyo, like the humidity in Virginia. “
left: “I think this photo was taken around 1976, when I was 3 years old. I was the third of eight children – two sisters and five brothers. I would say Star Wars (1977) That’s when it came out. I just remember going back to my apartment in Atlantis in Virginia Beach. I didn’t know life was so hard because it was fun for me.”
center: “My favorite cartoon as a kid was Jabberjaw (1976) and he was in a band called Neptunes. So that’s where the name came from [of his songwriting and production duo with Chad Hugo] from. “
correct: “I like watching movies for escapism. But the funny thing is, I can’t tell you where it’s from. My favorite movie is Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). I’m interested in the character of Richard Dreyfuss Very interested in aliens.”
