Pharrell Williams Takes on Tiffany, and Talks Atlantis, Poseidon, and the Cowboy Effect

“Jewellery is the punctuation mark of a person.—Pharrell Williams” read a glowing sign on the tenth floor of The Landmark, Tiffany & Co.’s glitzy mega store on Madison Avenue. The floor is usually reserved for private clients, and it’s designed as “the perfect apartment overlooking the park” (Central Park, that is). Last night, however, the breathtaking space played host to a celebratory dinner to launch Tiffany Titan, a collection designed by Williams.

Is anyone more booked than Pharrell? On Wednesday, the multi-hyphenate hosted yet another activation for yet another one of his endeavours—his auction platform Joopiter. Talk about getting mileage out of a New York trip.

“I feel like it’s been a long time coming,” said Williams of his partnership with Tiffany & Co. That’s almost an understatement: Williams and his personal style have become part of Tiffany’s cultural footprint, it is the jewellery maker responsible for his famous diamond sunglasses, after all. “Once LVMH got involved, and once Alex [Alexandre Arnault], who I’ve known for almost two decades, got involved and saw that his whole thing was to reimagine it, I jumped at the opportunity of partnering and collaborating.”

But despite his history with the brand, Williams didn’t self-reference, at least not too literally. “I find inspiration in things that don’t exist, and if they do exist, I use them in a completely different way,” said the designer. For his Tiffany & Co. collection Williams looked at mythology, his own and the Greek’s, starting with a play on words related to his own personal history. The artist grew up in Atlantis, a neighbourhood in Virginia Beach, which led him to the lost utopian civilisation in Plato’s writings, and to Poseidon, its king. “I’ve always been obsessed with water and Poseidon, so a lot of the links that we use [in the jewellery] are inspired by the trident he would carry,” he explained.

The name of the collection, “Titan,” has less to do with Poseidon being a son of the titans and more with the special black titanium that Williams selected for specific pieces, like a trident chain link bracelet with 18k yellow gold accents. “The use of black titanium is a physical manifestation of beauty in blackness,” he explained, wearing his now-signature cowboy hat.

About the cowboy of it all, and the way in which culture has embraced Western iconography since his autumn/winter 2024 show for Louis Vuitton in January, Williams said: “When I was a kid, Dallas was a huge show and the way they dress, it was a vibe, that’s really what it is. Where I come from, in Black culture, a lot of hustlers in D.C. used to wear cowboy hats and boots, and down south you see a lot of it still to this day. The rodeo is a huge element to Black culture; you wouldn’t know it based on what the media shows you, but it’s there. It’s very real.” That said, “I’m afraid of horses,” he added, “I’m definitely a poser.”

Guests at the dinner included Alexandre Arnault, Rosalía, Blackpink’s Rosé, Ayo Edebiri, Anitta, A$AP Rocky, Gabrielle Union, Blake Lively, and many others. The evening was an intimate kick-off to a packed weekend of events ahead of the Met Gala this Monday.