Pharrell Williams and Jackson Wang Toast ‘A Deeper Connection’ at Paris Fashion Week Dinner

PARIS – Pharrell Williams and Jackson Wang are making sweet music together. 

The two performers hosted a dinner during Paris Men’s Fashion Week on Friday to toast “Jackson Wang Metamorphosis: Athlete – Musician – Designer,” the latest sale organized by Joopiter, the auction platform that Williams launched in 2022.

And despite their busy schedules, Wang told WWD the pair also found time this week to record a couple of tracks. 

Guests including fellow musicians Rauw Alejandro, Pusha T, Big Matthew, Eric Nam and No Malice gathered at Shang Palace, the Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant at the Shangri-La hotel.  

“Shang Palace is one of my favorite restaurants. I want you to eat, eat, eat,” Williams encouraged the crowd, who feasted on dishes including red-rice flour rolls with shrimps and wok-fried Normand beef fillet.

The two men initially connected through Louis Vuitton, where Williams is creative director of menswear and Wang is a brand ambassador. Among the auction lots are stage looks from his recent solo “Magic Man World Tour,” including a custom Vuitton leather jacket and vest designed by Williams.

“This time was a closer connection, a deeper connection,” Wang said in an interview ahead of the dinner.

“He’s super busy. And yesterday, I was in the office and he has the whole keyboard, this mini portable studio set up in his room, and then we were able to create one or two songs,” he revealed. “We never know where this might take us, but we’ll see.”

The sale reflects the Hong Kong-born entertainer’s multiple talents. Before achieving pop stardom as a member of K-pop group Got7, the 30-year-old competed in the Youth Olympics as a fencer. 

“The hardest thing to part with among the items would be the official uniform that I received from the team the first time I participated in the World Championships for fencing,” said Wang, who has 32.8 million followers on Instagram and 30.7 million on Weibo.

He is also the founder of the record label Team Wang and director of the fashion brand Team Wang Design. The lots include some of his personal jewelry designs, such as a Team Wang diamond pendant. He plans to donate the proceeds to an as-yet unnamed charity.

The auction, which runs online until Tuesday, marks Joopiter’s first collaboration with a Chinese artist.

“It’s a dream to see where Joopiter’s come from, and to make it on his radar, and to make it on the radar of all of his fans. It just is bringing us together internationally, it’s bringing us together culturally, and as you know, Joopiter is about storytelling and artifacts,” Williams said in a speech at the start of the dinner. 

“It’s energy from one source to the next, and the idea that we get to do this together is an honor and it’s a privilege,” he added. 

The event had attendees mulling whose personal possessions they would like to own. 

“I would definitely go to Pharrell’s closet and steal everything,” said Wang. “Apparel, of course, but I think the toys, the little keychains, accessories, I think those would be my favorite.”

Big Matthew reeled off his list. “Tupac is one, J. Cole is another and Michael Jordan. I’m taking all of his jerseys, all of his shoes, all of his flex,” he said.

Creative consultant Sarah Andelman said Williams’ grillz designed by Dolly Cohen made for an unusual piece of memorabilia. They were among the lots on offer in the “Just Phriends” auction she curated for Joopiter last year. “You could frame them like a work of art,” she suggested.

Andelman said she was more drawn to original manuscripts, like John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics. “I find that quite moving,” she said. “I wouldn’t want someone’s clothes. That’s too personal.”

The former buying director of Paris concept store Colette and founder of consultancy Just An Idea found she was eerily familiar with many of the lots in the sale of Karl Lagerfeld’s estate in 2021.

“It was all stuff that he had bought at the store,” she said, recalling that the late designer snapped up fingerless gloves from Causse, custom Chrome Hearts jewelry and collectible objects, among others.

She once bought a metal rolling typing table that belonged to the Grateful Dead as a birthday gift for her husband Philip, a self-confessed Deadhead. He keeps it at their holiday home in Woodstock, N.Y.

“If you really love that person, it’s that idea that you’re touching something they once touched,” he said of the allure of celebrity memorabilia. “Knowing that it was in the office, that maybe Jerry Garcia rolled a joint on it at some point – I don’t know, there’s something about it.”

– With contributions from Lily Templeton.