PARIS — Pharrell Williams has reunited with Moët & Chandon for a new summer campaign and limited-edition bottle celebrating the joys of drinking Champagne on ice.
The “Happy” singer was photographed in Saint-Tropez, the French Riviera resort where season four of “White Lotus” is currently filming. But in Champagne lore, the seaside town is the place where people first started drinking bubbly on ice — a drink the French refer to as a “piscine,” or “swimming pool” in English.
Inspired by this new ritual, Moët & Chandon in 2011 launched a world first: a Champagne crafted specifically to be savored on ice, dubbed Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial.
Having revisited the Champagne house’s Brut Impérial and Nectar Impérial Rosé as part of their first collaboration last year, Williams has now added his name to a special edition of Ice Impérial, which for the first time is presented without its signature white sleeve. Launching on Monday in tandem with the campaign, it will retail for 54 euros.
The rollout encompasses an outdoor campaign in several locations, including the U.S., Germany and Hong Kong, and takeovers in hotels and beach clubs. Among them are Blu Beach in Sardinia, Italy; Gran Folies in Mallorca, Spain; Hotel Miramar in Sylt, Germany; Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, and Janu Hotel in Tokyo.
Pharrell Williams with a bottle of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial Champagne.
Quentin de Briey/Courtesy of Moët & Chandon
As creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, Williams is an organic partner for Moët & Chandon, which belongs to the wines and spirits division of luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
He’s no stranger to the hospitality space, having opened a seasonal restaurant called ToShare with chef Jean Imbert in Saint-Tropez, as well as Swan in Miami. In 2024, the entrepreneur partnered with hotel group Mohari Hospitality and Omnam Investment Group to acquire the Hôtel Saint-James & Albany in Paris, currently under renovation.
Williams is juggling the project with staging spectacular runway shows for Vuitton; writing, recording and producing music; collaborating with brands including Adidas, and expanding his own wellness brand Humanrace. He brings his full skill set to crafting immersive environments in leisure destinations.
“I want people to feel something, and I’m obsessed with the details. The light, the sound, the scent, the food, the energy in the room. Everything has to connect to the senses and feel like one world we’re building,” he told WWD in an emailed exchange.
But when it comes to the best way to drink Champagne in hot weather, Williams had only gentle suggestions.
“In summer, on ice. That is the whole spirit of Ice Impérial. A large wine glass, three ice cubes. And if the moment calls for it, there’s a Spicy Mangosé cocktail we created for the season. But the point is to drink it your way. There’s no wrong answer,” he said.
A limited-edition bottle of Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial Champagne designed in collaboration with Pharrell Williams.
Courtesy of Moët & Chandon
Williams has a special fondness for Saint-Tropez, which French film star Brigitte Bardot famously transformed from a sleepy fishing village to a magnet for jetsetters.
“When you are there, you get it right away. It changes your pace,” he said.
Regular visitors include his friends Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Jay-Z, designers like Hedi Slimane, and LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault, who has a private villa and several hotels there, including Cheval Blanc.
Moët & Chandon has doubled down on its partnership with Williams and its sponsorship of Formula 1 in an effort to boost sales amid a global slump in luxury spending.
Global Champagne shipments dropped 2 percent in 2025, marking their third consecutive year of decline, according to numbers released by the Comité Champagne trade organization. LVMH said revenues for its Champagne and wine brands were flat in organic terms during the period, though it did not break out figures for bubbly alone.
“Champagne is proving resilient in a market that is a little less buoyant,” Arnault told analysts and reporters at the annual results press conference in January.
