Opening Doors

MUMBAI’S NIGHTLIFE was surging in the mid-2000s, with over 300 bars and clubs throbbing from the southern tip of Colaba to the louche fringes near the Dahisar plaza.

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It was a fuzzier time, with loose nightlife curfews, low-slung jeans, cash money and no screens. In 2004, I was an editor at Time Out Mumbai magazine by day, and DJing at venues like Zenzi, Busaba and Seijo by night. One of the albums I played on heavy rotation that year was Kelis’ “Tasty”, written and produced by an unknown group called the Neptunes, comprising two musicians: Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. The exceptional musicality, topnotch collaborators, and peerless taste woven through the record were astonishing. It was the first time I came into contact with Pharrell’s artistry.

It was also the year that Louis Vuitton’s pioneering creative director Marc Jacobs reached out to Pharrell and their common friend, the Japanese streetwear titan Nigo, to produce a sunglasses capsule, which included the now-iconic Millionaire line. Four years later, the French luxury goods powerhouse tapped Pharrell again—this time to design a jewellery collection called Blason (French for “coat of arms”) aimed at aesthete ballers.