Pharrell Williams: The Future of Luxury Is ‘Freedom’

9 Oct 2023

With his first Louis Vuitton men’s show behind him, BoF 500 cover star Pharrell Williams shares his long-term vision for the future of Louis Vuitton, and luxury itself, with BoF’s Imran Amed.

PARIS — For Pharrell Williams, the future of luxury is “freedom.” Not a bag, not a logo. Freedom.

I’m in Paris to meet Louis Vuitton’s new men’s creative director on the first day of September, outside the hype cycle of fashion week. Paris is just waking up from its August slumber, the air still thick with humidity.

Pharrell enters a small, quiet room in the Louis Vuitton headquarters. He is zen-like and greets me with a head bow, his hands clasped together, a bit like an Indian namaste. He’s more subdued than the last time we met at a ‘Friendsgiving’ dinner in London last November to mark the UK launch of Humanrace, the skincare line he launched in 2020. That night, he spoke passionately about US politics, his life in Miami and Kanye West.

But that was a conversation from another time, before Pharrell’s appointment as Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director changed his life, turning the multi-hyphenate celebrity singer, producer and entrepreneur from the American South into one of the most visible figures in the global luxury industry.