FASHION: COMPLEX interviews Pharrell Williams about Fall BBC BEE line collection

COMPLEX Magazine recently sat down with Pharrell Williams and Mark McNairy to talk about his Fall Collection for Billionaire Boys Club and his collaboration with Mark McNairy on the BEE line.

It’s a perfect fit, you’ve been working with artists like Danny Brown, and no one else in menswear has really embraced hip-hop in their work as publicly as you have, is there a reason for that? Do you like rap or just like these rappers?
Mark: It’s funny because I started listening to Grandmaster Flash, The Clash, Young M.C., Afrika Bambaataa… and then I missed out on hip-hop for a long time.

Like the ‘90s?
Mark: The ‘90s and more, so there’s very little that I knew.

What brought you back into the hip-hop world?
Mark: Honestly, Jay-Z, I love him as a guy, as a person, businessman or whatever, but I only knew one of his songs, that’s it. Only one: 99 Problems.

To tell you the truth, I thought Kanye was a dick. My younger brother, who’s 10 years younger, who’s very narrow-minded about his music — he likes English Brit-Pop or whatever, he tells me he liked Kanye. I was like “what the fuck are you talking about?!”

And then I listened to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and I was like “what the fuck?! This is fucking amazing!” And then it just went from there.

How do you play off the creative energy between you two?
Pharrell: He’s my hero! Not only is he very talented, but he cracks me up. He’s the funniest guy. I could have grown up with him. He could have been my best friend as a kid because we both have those southern sensibilities. The shit you just wouldn’t understand unless you were from the south.

I couldn’t believe that somebody from the south had his taste and tone. Especially when it came to traditional English textiles that he’d use. His usage of tweed, herringbone, and gingham print — all the things that I love — and how he mixes it and flips it, it’s ingenious. So I’m happy. And he doesn’t have a New York accent, it’s all the real shit, but he lives here, and he’s lived here for the longest time.  He’s rare. Super rare.

I really like the collection and how they merged traditional menswear (tweeds, harringbones) with streetwear. There are definitely some pieces from this that would look dope on any man. As always there are pieces with anything Pharrell puts out that plays to the more daring man, but it’s a good look.

How can you go wrong with that sweater? And those boots!

What do you think? Do you think they hit the mark with this new BBC collection?

You can read the full interview here.