On The Podcast: Pharrell Williams’s Wild, Wild West

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How do you feel about the importance

of fashion s role in being culturally relevant

or even shaping culture?

You know, I hesitate to put responsibility

on anyone or even sectors.

Now that being said, I do think that fashion can be an agent

of galvanizing and of enlightening people.

I think it can be an agent,

but I hesitate to put that kind

of like responsibility on anyone

or any particular like artistic discipline.

But it s always beautiful when art can do that

and art does do that.

But then what do you think your role is in like,

playing this part?

Like you said, like you don t wanna put responsibility

on any brand or any person,

but you agree that it s actually having the impact

in shaping culture. Yeah, yeah.

So what do you think you are playing in that part?

Lead by example. You know, for me, I see the beauty

and the difference in people.

You know, I think that which makes you different is

what makes you special.

And we just need a little bit more of that.

That s an interesting point you make

about a creative director role as a lens on the world

or lens on communities that are happening around you.

And I think in this moment, there s a lot of confusion

about what a creative director actually is,

because in different ecosystems

and different markets, it means a different thing.

What would you say is your view on, you know,

Louis Vuitton is a house with courage and heritage.

Do you see your role as kind of connecting

that past like vibrant, rich, past

with the future in some way?

Kind of being that bridging force?

It s more like,

I work with 55 different departments, over 2,500 soldiers.

I call em soldiers.

But this is like a love movement.

But you have to conduct, you know,

it s like a huge orchestra, you know?

And my job is to make sure

that like everything is in harmony, you know,

and to weed out any of the dissonance

and just make sure that like it s a harmonious thing

and that we move as a unit.

And that s been such a pleasure.

You know, these I mean,

masterful artisans I m surrounded by.

So like, it s great.

Now that you ve been on the inside for a period

of time learning from these artisans,

what has really surprised you about some

of the people you ve worked with?

Or has anyone said anything to you

or asked you anything that really gave you pause

that you didn t expect?

It just continues to be a dream.

[Margret] Mm hmm.

I think that s probably the most striking thing to me.

Like, I never experienced anything like that.

It just continues to be a dream.

But like, if I don t have a job,

but if I had one, it d be very easy

and hard at the same time, which is not to wake up.

That s it. All we do is dream.

We dream and make dreams happen

and we make manifest of dreams.

We bring them to fruition.

You know, it s very interesting for me

that you mention harmony, this word so many times,

cause harmony is actually a very important concept

in Chinese culture as well.

Like, we care about this.

And also, love in a general term

is also something like China is trying to embrace a lot

in our modern culture.

But then I think you are aware that in the fashion industry

and creative industry, there has been a lot

of discussion about a lack of diversity

and inclusion at different levels.

So I was wondering like, what do you think is the change

that is necessary to happen

in order to tackle the current issue

or just make the fashion system become better?

You know, that s a question

that really boils down to like equality, your question.

But I think that there s an interesting answer

that has nothing to do with equality.

It s equity. It s having more people

of color to have their own businesses

and to have their own brands

and for the consumer base to support them.

Mm hmm.

And that s how we re really gonna diversify in this world.

Like, what we can t do as people

of color is continue to try to find a seat at a table

where we may or may not be welcome.

Sure.

My whole thing is like,

there s room under the sun for everyone.

Why don t we just build our own tables, right?

So that s what you re doing.

And yeah. And welcome who we may.

And in this role,

how do you find opportunities to empower people

to build their own table, so to speak?

Well, we do that with Black Ambition,

which the house is very supportive of.

It s run by like Felecia Hatcher

and they re like totally crushing it.

But that provides like strategic scaffolding

and resources to black and brown concepts.

And I think we just need more of that.

You know, again, equality s awesome, you know, our parents

and their parents and their parents,

they fought for equality.

Mm hmm.

But I think, you know,

equity is much more formidable and powerful

because when you have equity,

you don t have to ask anyone can you have a seat

at the table.

It s your table. Mm hmm.

And you can make as many chairs as you like,

you know, your your own cap table.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

You know, I think it s interesting what you say

because you are right in this moment that Asian voices,

the whole eastern hemisphere, a lot of generations of work,

of creative culture, and in China, certainly thousands

of years of creative culture, we feel is kind

of concentrating in this moment

and manifesting in this moment where, you know,

we ve just had our Vogue China Fashion Fund,

inaugural Fashion Fund winners announced recently.

And it s the first time

that we ve really felt the world is paying attention

to these new Chinese creative voices.

And I know that they d be so curious to hear from you

what advice you have for them as creatives.

Oh, first and foremost, you know,

focus on your light, be creative.

None of this matters

if you are not doing something that is really interesting

and striking.

Mm hmm. Focus on that.

And with the ubiquitous nature of the internet,

everyone s connected. So it ll get out there.

You know, there s no such thing as a greatest kept secret.

Mm hmm.

If we just continue to focus on being great.

It s very different than it was 30, 40 years ago.

Sure.

You know, everything was like in a vacuum.

But now, like I said,

because of the internet, it s different.

If you re really talented, they will find you.

Somebody will find you, somebody will get behind you.

And I just, I mean, you know, just being over here

and just seeing everything that s going on, man,

it s really your time.

It s your time. Like nothing is stopping you, nothing.

Nothing can dim the light.

And by the way,

the light that I m referring to is the light

of the universe.

Mm hmm.

Right? You know, we know that, you know,

there s a day and a night, but the sun does not set.

The earth is just spinning.

Mm hmm. Right?

And when you know that,

you realize the sun is always shining.

So it doesn t matter if it s nighttime and you can t see,

it doesn t mean that the sun is not shining

in your direction.

So once you know that, you realize you don t need the light

or the acceptance from.

Sure, like validation or.

The world at large.

Like just shine and be bright and be magnetic.

Be great. That goes back to the question

that you asked me about, like the young creators here

and what they need to hear.

Just be magnetic.

Mm hmm.

But I was wondering, you also said that there are a lot

of setbacks that people might experience during the process,

that they re trying to find their light

or do things that they think is right.

So what kind of mindset they should have

and order to keep focusing on, like finding their light.

Well, those blockages

and those purposeful disadvantages are set up

in a system that you don t really need.

You don t need it anymore. We used to.

It s like for a very long time,

the record industry would make you

feel like they were the complete gateway

for people to know you.

Sure.

And now you have more artists making music

that are not signed to a label and making so much money.

Mm hmm.

And it s beautiful, you know,

and I don t wanna measure it across like, you know,

there s more like millionaires under 30,

like there s billionaires under 30.

[laughing] Right.

But we are not gonna measure it that way.

What we re gonna say is there is an incredible population

of Gen Zers and like even millennials

who are like just writing their own checks.

You know, they re carving their own paths.

They re, you know, blazing their own trails

and it s a really beautiful karmic thing to watch.

It s like kismet to me.

That makes sense. I mean, do you feel that social media

as an ecosystem has a negative

or positive, or indifferent impact on luxury

as a category now that you re running this ship?

I think good, bad and indifferent.

Yeah. Yeah for sure.

In what sense?

I mean, it s good in certain ways.

It is not so good in other ways.

And then there s a part of it

where it just kind of like, doesn t matter.

Right

Yeah. But I think that, like, there s a lot of artists

that are born in social media,

and I think there s a lot of fashion designers

that are born in social media,

and they sort of design for the gram, you know,

and there are artists that make music for the gram.

It s like a very different thing, but it s fine.

But you don t still.

But I m not a fashion designer.

Sure. Okay. How would you classify yourself,

if not a fashion designer?

Oh, creative director, for sure.

Mm hmm.

Yeah. And when I first came to the house, when I sat down

with Bernard Arnault,

the first thing I did

was lay down like the five different pillars

of what I wanted,

what I saw the house doing with my leadership.

And then we talked about like core elements

and codes that I wanted to change

and essentially level up from where they were.

Mm hmm.

And he agreed on all of it.

And everything that you guys are seeing

are all the things that I ve presented.

And this Hawaiian

or island vacation that you brought to Hong Kong,

how does that vehicle kind of empower the creatives

in your community or the consumer?

Well, it s a pre-collection.

Right? Mm hmm.

And usually there s no shows around pre-collections.

There s not a lot of shows around pre-collections.

Sure.

And I wanted to make it

so that our pre-collections felt like main shows.

Okay.

You know, like I wanted it to feel like,

cause usually you, I mean, at least for us,

usually pre-collections are like, you know,

a lot of beige, a lot of like navy blue,

a lot of black, a lot of gray,

little bit of cream, some tan.

And it s very like, you know,

middle aged, like professional guy on the go.

You know, like a character on Succession or something.

Sexy. [laughing]

And I was like, eh, you know,

like, let s level it up.

Let s make this pre-collection feel like it s one

of the main shows. Mm hmm.

We obviously incorporated all the codes,

but I wanted to shake the tree a bit, you know,

cause I think that that can,

because it s also like, it s where they do a big bulk

of the business

because it s so like, middle of the road

and centrist. Sure.

But I still wanted to shake it up a bit

so that we are leveling, you know,

the consumer up, and the client up.

Like not just a couple steps, you know,

like, oh, we re gonna step it up.

No, no, no. We wanted to floor it up.

I wanted to take em up several floors.

So there s a lot of incorporation of a lot of pearls.

There s a lot of embroidery. This jacket is like, you know,

I was looking at your jacket.

Yeah. This jacket is gonna be, this is made to order.

Mm hmm.

But this was like to commemorate my trip here in China.

So it just shows all the cities.

Oh, great. Oh, okay.

That is one of the pieces

for the upcoming Chinese New Year collection though.

So it s like a unique piece.

Well, we just knew that like, it s gonna be the year

of the dragon. Next year is the dragon.

Yeah. So we started there.

Oh.

I wanted my Asian siblings to know, like, listen,

I appreciate everything that you ve sewn into me.

And that, you know, just supported me

on every platform I ve ever existed on.

And this was a new platform for me

and that I intend to share it.

And maybe one last question on men s wear.

So I mean,

you have been heading up this men s wear department

for Louis Vuitton for a while.

How do you perceive men s wear category in 2023?

And how do you see it involved going forward?

For me, I know on paper it s men s wear,

but I just make clothes for humans.

Hmm.

I learned that, you know, being over at Chanel,

I used to wear things that I felt like I could pull off.

Not because they were less effeminate,

but if I thought I could wear it, then I would wear it,

you know, sweater here, belt there, or whatever.

And I swear Yiling, when Phoebe was there,

like I wore a lot of that. I was super early on that.

But I think that s my job, right?

That s my responsibility to bring that energy

to this men s wear appointment is to make clothes

for humans.

Mm hmm.

I don t know, sometimes like, culture lets you know

what it wants to be.

Hmm.

And I know why we have been welcoming,

not accepting. Sure.

It s a very big difference between welcoming

and accepting. Facts.

Right? Some people are accepting,

but we ve been very welcoming to humans.

I think, they just always want me to be respectful

and not step on the toes of like, you know,

the women s department, you know,

be respectful of our siblings there.

Sure.

But I just, I pride myself

on just like making things for humans.

And to wrap up, what excites you about the future?

God. Yeah. There s nothing more exciting than that.

That s a great answer. I mean, but Right.

Though it s the universe.

Like where are we without it?

Like, it s just not even possible.

But the idea that the universe continues to provide me

with these opportunities

that I can t put into words, just like dreams.

Right? A lot of times they re dreams that you ve had

and you just can t put into words.

Yeah. And never planned for

and the detour becomes a main road.

Yes.

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