Though it seems like we haven’t heard much from Pharrell Williams in a while, the artist and living style icon has clearly been putting in work behind the scenes. Today, the “Happy” musician has announced that he is now co-owner of denim brand G-Star RAW.
On top of my business. As of today, proud to be a co-owner of @GStarRAW pic.twitter.com/dc3YARX0om
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) February 9, 2016
The move doesn’t come without context: for the past two years the pair have collaborated on the RAW for Oceans denim line which features jeans made from recycled plastic. Utilizing a process created by Bionic Yarn (of which Pharrell is the creative director) the company turns discarded plastic bottles into thread which is then spun into jeans. The collection has presumably been doing well as each season it sees further iterations, expanding into shirts, coats and even flight suits. Now, the brand is pulling Williams aboard to help across the whole company.
The announcement comes within a month of Pharrell buying back into the Billionaire Boys Club that he founded with Nigo in 2005. According to reports, Williams bought 50% of the company back from Iconic Brands Group. For Iconix, the move allows the company to focus where they can make money faster as they are in $300 million in debt as of June. Expect the company to expand in product categories, possibly retail space and in licensing opportunities.
