Pharrell Williams Is GQ’s Designer of the Year

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If you’re wondering how Pharrell Williams’s gig at Louis Vuitton is going 20 months into his appointment, consider this: The luxury house that represents the crown jewel of Bernard Arnault’s $300 billion LVMH empire has more or less tripled the footprint of its men’s creative director’s office at 2 rue du Pont Neuf in Paris.

Pharrell still works partially in the modest space previously occupied by his predecessor, Virgil Abloh, but the company has blown through several nearby walls, creating an airy and design-filled executive power suite. Our first interview took place on a new couch in a newly created corner room, with expansive views across the Seine to the Left Bank and beyond. “We don’t do a lot of work here,” Pharrell tells me. “We do a lot of dreaming and manifesting.” Nearby was his gleaming new recording studio.

Speaking of music studios, Pharrell’s GQ cover shoot took place two days after our Paris interview—but 5,600 miles away—in Hollywood, during a 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. sunrise shift at a recording complex. By the time our crew wrapped, Pharrell had engineers working in three different rooms.

The following week, when we reconnected yet again, in New York City, where Pharrell was promoting his new animated Lego biopic, Piece by Piece, as well as announcing his role as a co-chair for next year’s Met Gala alongside Lewis Hamilton and Anna Wintour, I asked him about his multifaceted setup back in LA. “I had three different rooms for three different artists. That’s the way I like to cook. I like to go from room to room, because one room reminds me that the other room isn’t as hot as I thought it was before I left. Having different rooms going makes you zoom out. Because you zoom in to make it, but then you zoom out to judge whether it’s fire.”

When I expressed concern that he had flown from Paris to LA specifically to record music, only to have those recording sessions swamped by a GQ cover shoot, Louis Vuitton business, Lego movie business, and presumably the machinations of plenty of other projects I wasn’t privy to, the 51-year-old simply blinked at me and responded: “That’s the way that I like it.”

What follows is an edited conversation with the planet’s most prolific multitasker, and GQ’s Designer of the Year, about the ins and outs of what will one day inevitably be known as “The Pharrell Era” at Louis Vuitton—and “The LV Era” for Pharrell.

PHARRELL: Tell me when you’re rolling.

We should start with joy. Joy is not only an experience and an emotion, but it’s an art form. And it’s the color I paint with.

Well, [before we started rolling] you talked about our 2019 interview, and I don’t ever read my interviews, but I’m pretty sure that I talked about my gratitude, and gratitude has brought me far in life. And the sense of joy that I feel is the next step up.

That’s forever the exercise.

Joy is a result. The exploration is just like humility, empathy, gratitude, chivalry. After living so much of my life one way—

Ambitious, but arrogant. Pompous at times.

Yeah. Whereas what I’ve learned now is that when you err on the side of humility, empathy, gratitude, chivalry, you still—your talent is your talent. Your gift is your gift. So when you fuse all those things in it, that produces joy. My appointment here, it’s so much bigger than apparel, footwear, bags, accessories, trunks—

—Campaigns, shows, windows. Man, I think about the shoes and bags that we are about to drop—bro, you will remember this conversation. It’s so crazy. But it took the brand tapping me on my shoulder to say, “Hey, you’re supposed to be in this position and this is what you’re supposed to do.” The appointment is not just here [at LV], it’s an appointment to my life. In every situation that I encounter, my job is to produce joy.

I’m sure.

Yeah, get the fuck out of here.

But you know what? I could be the exact opposite.

It was the worst. It was the worst. It’s embarrassing. When you really realize how this shit work? You didn’t sell a million songs. You made a song and a million people liked it because a hundred people promoted it and the conditions were perfect for you. There’s so many components to your success. You are one little part of it.

Silence. Believe it or not, that’s the difference.

Silence is an exercise. Allowing your work to speak for you is an exercise. Being okay with the fact that most people are going to miss it. Being extra okay with the fact that the people who don’t miss it, who decide they want to act like it was their idea—they’re going to get very loud about it, and they’re going to get the credit for it. Until some of the real sleuths out there will be like, “Nah, here go the receipts.” And you wait on that. But you stay in silence. Nigo-san, he taught me that. He don’t say nothing. As Pusha says: If you know, you know.

I didn’t realize. You never realize how much all the stuff you have weighs on you, but it does. You don’t know it until you get rid of it. The muscles in my back, now they work without straining. When you let that go, man, you feel so free. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in the world. It’s still there. And whatever happens to them happens to them.

Sure.

No, because I think beyond all of the on-goings, at the heart of all of it, he’s a fan of music. He’s a fan of the history of what it is, and I happen to be a part of that, and those artifacts are a part of it.

Yeah.

It didn’t.

No.

Or not. I guess some things are not for me to understand. When you let things go, a huge part of it is actually letting go. Not just of the physical item, but letting go of your connection to what it’s supposed to mean, or the memory. You’re literally letting them go. That was the purpose. It’s like when people sell something and they go, “I just want to make sure you take care of it because this is my baby.” And I’m like, “No, no, no.” This is not my baby. That’s why I’m letting it go.

Every day.

I know, man. But listen, when you—

But what’s the challenge, man? I’m from the mud, so what’s the challenge?

Listen, can you see this? [Walks over to an office window that looks over the Seine.] Look.

Okay…

Yeah, you see people who have a very different experience than we do. Who knows why they’re there? Who knows what the situation is? I’m from the mud. We were in public housing. You can’t ever say that public housing is like being homeless and living in the street. But you can say that the way that people live and what their resources are at the time is relative. I could be anywhere. The ideas that I have for [LV] trunks could just be ideas while I’m at my day job. You know what I’m saying?

Who may or may not ever get that opportunity.

And that’s my point. So, how is every day not amazing? I know everything isn’t awesome for everybody, but it can be if you were to retool and level set your appreciation. Level set your wherewithal. It can be amazing.

It’s a big system, and sometimes you want it to move as quick as you ideate or iterate. And sometimes there’s drag. But I’m blessed to be in a system where they listen, and we articulately explain why we think something is a drag and how it could be much more efficient. This is a system that listens. So there’s moments where you got to exercise patience. And we do.

Well, it’s a house that happens to be machined by a corporation. It’s not a job.

Because I don’t have a boss. It’s a house. And I’ve been asked to come in and be the creative director. I mean, I love [Louis Vuitton CEO] Pietro [Beccari] and he appointed me, but he is not my boss.

No. I’m in a house. It literally operates like a house. Obviously, it’s his house. And they pay me very well. But no one’s like, You better do this and You need to do that. It’s like an artist in residence. So it’s very different. I wouldn’t have taken it if somebody thought they was my boss. I’m good. I am blessed.

He’s one of the best executives in the game because of a few things: He’s good with strategy. He is an empowering supporter. And he has a spine. And people with a spine can stand next to you or stand behind you because they have vertebrae. And there’s a lot of intersections where we agree. One is about efficiency. So when I tell him, Hey, we need da-da-da-da so I can be creative—so I can iterate and ideate and do what I got to do—he makes it happen.

Whenever we are together or we meet or we have a meal, we share our philosophies on the state of the business. We also talk about culture. He’s very dialed in. You don’t get to be a guy of his stature by not being dialed in to culture. He’s dialed in.

By only staring at spreadsheets, because he does that too. His eyes are 3D. One is looking at spreadsheets and the other one is looking at culture. And when he blends them together, he gets this three-dimensional understanding of how the world is working and how it’s going to work. And we do that too: We have precognitive conversations.

We talk about the future. Where we see it going. And we have several aspects of his businesses that are very close to his heart, and he has asked me to lean in to them. And so you’ll see some really interesting Moët things pop up. [Tugs on gold necklace.] I did this with Tiffany.

Yeah. It’s: What do you want to do? Can you lean in to this? Can you lean in to that? And we do. And then there’s philanthropic things that we’ve been working on. For them, it’s philanthropy. For me, I call it tithing. It’s just giving back to the universe.

French, a little bit at a time. And being here, looking across the pond, I just see how we rile each other up. I see how we’re so tribalist. You know how condensation will show iridescence in your fingerprints, depending on how the light hits it? You can see the fingerprints of foreign agents and foreign countries pitting us against each other. You can see the fingerprints from here.

Because of the distance. And that’s something that is hard to watch, but you don’t want to be in it because you would be one of them, choosing a side. And then there’s the people in the middle of it who have a salacious hunger to feed their bias. And so they do whatever it takes to get you to try to choose a side. If you don’t, you’re the enemy. And when you choose a side, everybody [on that side is] with you. And then the other group of people who differ in opinion hate you. And it’s like, Yo, what do y’all think those stars on the flag are about? You think every state is alike? You crazy?

Thank God Hawaii is not like Iowa, and Iowa is not like Illinois. New Mexico is nothing like Atlanta, Georgia. Thank God! That’s what makes us beautiful. And how did we become the United States of America? Put aside for a second, the original sin—the first commodity in the country, which were Black people. Let’s put that to the side. How do we become that whole idea that was marketed to us, that this was the land of the free and the home of the brave, and that all these different nations from around the world, mostly Europe, would come over there and set up shop and create this new world, right? What happened to that?

And we’re the furthest from it right now. All of that is hard to watch, man. And for me, listen, I don’t think you’re supposed to agree with everything. But you need to appreciate the differences because you are different from somebody else, too. And that’s what we have completely lost sight of. This is how I know the glaze is over our eyes back home: When I hear these talks of anti-immigration and “They’re coming into our country and they’re bringing diseases, they’re raping, they’re killing, they’re bringing drugs, they’re taking our jobs”—you could take the words from some of these speeches and just show Native Americans and put these speeches with them. They were there first. They would have the right to be the ones to say that. And so when you think about these people that are wanting you to take a side on certain things, it’s like, Man, I am sorry, but I am not with any kind of division. To me, we are all God’s children. And if the Lord love everybody—

I’m not with the divisiveness. You know there’s the word sword. You move that s to the back, and it’s words. I choose words. I wish there could be no loss of life, and people could discuss their differences. But I also know that the world doesn’t work that way. And again, that’s the reason why I say to certain questions, like, Man, don’t ask me, because I’m a celebrity, what I think about this or what I think about that. I’m of no authority. Don’t ask me.

Because that’s what they do. They pit you against each other. I love Taylor. She knows that.

No. Zero. In fact, I bought a 1989 Taylor T-shirt online last year, and I was walking around here with it tucked into my jeans. I love her. I love people, bro. That was some right-wing troll shit. But I heard something the other day that made the most sense in the world: Right-wing, left-wing, all the same bird.

Well, I’m so glad you asked, because, for me, just because you offer me the options doesn’t mean that I need to exist in that.

Yeah, I reject your menu. And I reserve the right. I actually do stand for something, of course, but I don’t have to share it with you. Who are you that I need to report to you what I feel? What if I don’t like either of your choices? What if I love people? What if I’m not a war person, I’m not a fighter? The cliché thing would be to say I’m a lover—and shit, I guess that it is what we did here [at Louis Vuitton], right?

Right. But my thing is like, I don’t have to share my discourse with you. I stand for my ability to remain silent. I’m all about action. I’ve donated, I’ve volunteered, but I don’t need to show you and I don’t have to tell you. It’s anonymous because I don’t care what you think. I care what my god thinks. I worship the god of Abraham, which is the same god of the three considered monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I’m also a universalist, so my Buddhist siblings? All good. For me, there’s room under the sun for everyone. My Hindu siblings? Yo, same thing. And any other theology that recognizes the all that is, all that ever was, and all that ever will be. You call it whatever you want. I don’t got to get in the comments. You do that. You stay there, and you live your life there, wake up one day addicted to eating couch filler. It’s fine with me. By the way, if I wasn’t like that, then I couldn’t preach Live and let live. You know what I’m saying? You can’t have it both ways. You either really down with Live and let live or you not. And if you are down with Live and let live, then you really got to live and let live.

Absolutely. In my mind—not in anybody else’s opinion, but in my mind—I’m like a merited civil servant. Meaning it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House, we got things we got to get done for our country. I might not like your politics, but that’s what being American is supposed to be about. Right? You got to be able to work with “your side” and “the other side.” If there’s things that I need to get done for Virginia that’s going to benefit Virginians, I’m willing to have a conversation with whoever the powers that be is going to be.

It was two things: One, my dad loves Westerns. And I never really understood it, because he says shit sometimes, and I’m like, “Dad, you can’t say that.” He’s from a different era. He was shot in his back and called the N-word, so that stuck with him. But certain times he says things where I’m like, “Dad, come on.” You know what I mean? He’s a boomer, so boomers…

Yeah, sometimes boomers boom. But he loves Westerns, and I’m like, “Dad, you do know that’s not how it was? They’re missing Black, Asian, and other folks that were doing a lot of the work, and the way that they’re treating the natives is terrible. How do you like this?” He likes a lot of the actors who, in real life, how they regarded Black people was terrible. And he knows that. But he still just likes the art form. And also, I just love Chanel “Paris-Dallas.” [In 2013, Karl Lagerfeld staged a Chanel runway show in Dallas.] So the collection was kind of like an homage to two people that I looked up to. That’s why I called it the “Paris-Virginia” collection.

Wow. Thank you.

That was the point. The point was for you to have a human connection to it. Using race to make a connection, without making it about race. It was about connecting to a color and seeing that you belong. At first, when you see the tone on tone—

And then, when you look, it’s not racial at all. It’s just making you feel like you belong, just like everybody else in the color wheel of existence. That was the point. I wanted everybody to feel welcome—because it’s the prelude to the Olympics. And what is the Olympics?

It’s just humanity.

It has, but not in the way that you would assume.

More time.

Because the Vuitton appointment has centralized me in a place where I can do more music. You’ve been to the music studio within the design studio [in Paris].

And I got two other rooms. Before I was just taking music everywhere I went. Now music is at the heart of everything that I’m doing.

Can you tell Future that I’m obsessed with Mixtape Pluto? Man, “Ski,” “Plutoski,” fucking “Aye Say Gang.”

Pusha was the first one to really talk about people aging gracefully in hip-hop. He been talking about it for years. Jay-Z did it really well.

Yeah. He has been, and he’s such a GOAT. People got all this judgment and they don’t understand. People should just give him his time. He’s going to be back. That feeling finds you—you can’t run from it. He not running, he just saying he not going to force it. What you love about him was when he was compelled. It’ll be back. And when it does, he’s going to come in hot.

No, I don’t reach for no trend and I ain’t reaching for nothing that I used to do. The trend was doing documentaries. I said no.

Well, I mean [with Piece by Piece, the Lego animated biopic that came out in October], six, seven years ago, my very persistent agent kept asking [about doing a documentary]. I was like, “No, I don’t give a fuck who’s doing it, man. We already got them—they doing it.” I don’t want to do what everybody else is doing, bro. You know me. If everybody is stuck in traffic, I want to take the plane.

Well, I’m always going to go to a Comme [des Garçons] show. I’m a Comme child. Rei Kawakubo is something else. I went to a Sacai show recently, too. I love Chitose [Abe]. And I’m a huge fan of Jonathan Anderson.

I think Jonathan Anderson is—I won’t even call him underrated, because I think people do know.

Jonathan believes in getting to the point. He makes his statement very simple. To me, on the other end of the spectrum is Rei, who is very simple about her ideas, but she’s complex in her design. And then, obviously Kim [Jones] is a friend too. Kim was the first one to open up his doors to me when I left Chanel.

Yeah: Let’s do whatever. He was giving me carte blanche, and I’ll never forget that. It never materialized because I ended up going to Vuitton.

Me calling him to tell him. He’s 30-something now and rarely gets the opportunity to be a kid again. He’s lived so much life in the last 10 years—the growing pains of becoming a world-renowned artist. So that was my favorite moment: “Wait, who, me? Seriously? Whoa.” He crushed it. I really just stood to the side and let him rock.

Wow. Did they just hit a joint when they said that?

They might’ve just taken a sip of something. You know what I mean? Because that’s a high thought.

I don’t think I’ve done it yet. This feels like doing it, this doesn’t feel like done it. We’re unlocking so many things. Reimagining the system—I’m all about system, strategy, and structure. And I think when you get all three of those humming, then you get to a place of simplicity. I love to work in silence. We don’t really give you the progress reports, we just hit you with the blams.

Will Welch is GQ’s global editorial director.

A version of this story originally appeared in the 2024 GQ Men of the Year issue with the title “Pharrell Williams: Designer of the Year”

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Photographs by Eli Russell Linnetz
Styled by Matthew Henson and Eli Russell Linnetz
Skin by Irene Grosleib
Barbering by Johnny Cake Castellanos
Tailoring by Yelena Travkina
Set design by James Rene
Produced by Tightrope Production