Pharrell Williams was an unexpected pick to lead Louis Vuitton’s menswear operation almost two years ago. How’s it going? GQ global editorial director Will Welch caught him in Paris and Los Angeles for a deep conversation about that and more. —Chris Cohen, deputy site editor
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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.” |
