Pharrell Williams Talks To Nicola Vassell About “Kondo-ing” His Life and Joopiter Auction Service

Over the course of three decades, the multi-hyphenate producer, designer, and business owner Pharrell Williams has crafted undeniable hits for himself and a remarkable slice of music’s elite. And he has amassed an archive-worthy collection of unparalleled items in that same time span. Today at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion conference, Williams spoke with Nicola Vassell, founder and CEO of Nicola Vassell Gallery, about his newest venture, Joopiter auction service. Williams will use it to flog treasured goods (i.e. a Sony PSP encased in solid gold) from 11 storage units that he has filled up over time, with a portion of the proceeds going directly to Black Ambition. 

Williams told Vassell that his consumption habits were significantly different when he was an artist and producer in the ’90s. “All of these items were made at a time to prove myself to my city, my peers,” he said, sharing that his younger self was a tad more “braggadocious.” Williams credited his decision to part ways with a significant amount of the objects in his life to a wake up call. “When your business manager says, ‘Are you just going to continue to pay for 11 storage units to archive things…” you realize that you’re holding on to so much. You have to let things go and ascend to the next level. There’s a reason why people in hot air balloons would drop weights in order to get higher.” Bidding on the first round of items from Williams’s inimitable collection begins on October 20. He revealed he has plans to host auctions by celebrities, friends, and even brands in the near future. The one qualification to take part? “People with taste.” 

The conversation later turned to Williams’s thoughts on the increasing influence of technology, and more specifically algorithms, on creativity and taste. He pointed out that a number of successful tech business models had informally existed within majority black, inner-city neighborhoods years before Silicon Valley monetized and scaled-up the ideas. “All of the companies right now, they existed in the hood—good, bad, or indifferent. Lyfting and Ubering? That’s been in the hoods for years, from the vans everybody would go and get in.” 

Williams says the influx of algorithm-driven content has likely skewed our ideas of what is good and bad when it comes to sartorial choices. Williams wrote in a press document for Joopiter, “This economy is less about having the money to buy things, and more about having the taste to know what to buy; it’s about showing a set of values and ethical intelligence through spending.” A similar philosophy was imbued in William’s observations during the discussion: “That’s why, unfortunately, we’re seeing so much bad taste. And you’re just like, ‘Wow, person is dead ass serious.’ Then after that you’re a little scared because it makes you realize it’s not just that one person.” 

Still, Williams credits the widespread reach of the internet, social media, and smartphones with allowing more marginalized voices to break through in various industries and on their own terms. “It used to be that the point of entry was so much narrower,” he said of the rising number of successful black designers and tastemakers within today’s fashion industry. “It was like that in the music industry too. Now a lot of these platforms are offering people the room to be themselves, and people are discovering they have their own agency and they don’t have to give it away.” 

As the conversation drew to a close, Williams ended things on a positive note. “It is so much more adventurous to explore all of your sides,” he said. Case in point: Some of his favorite sources of inspiration are everyday people, walking down the street and going about their day. Or, as he put it, “People who are just doing them.”