Pharrell Williams

gave a far-reaching interview for GQ‘s New Masculinity issue, specifically speaking about his penchant for gender fluid clothes.

Do you feel that it is in some ways your privilege to lend your voice to uplifting people who are under attack?
Yeah, but I’m not, like, an activist. And I don’t think my opinion is everything. I don’t know anyone else’s plight. I can just say, for me, the minute that I stopped worrying about what other people thought, and stopped catering to the fears that are taught to you—the minute that I let all that shit go—that’s when I started, like: Oh, that Chanel belt? I could wear that. That Chanel hat? I like it. I could pull that off.

There were gender-fluid elements to the way you dressed long before it became a national conversation.
It started with the “I can pull that off” thing. I wore a lot of Chanel, and I wore tons of Céline. Like, I got all the O.G. Céline. Because they were clothes I could fit in. When you listen to yourself and you’re comfortable in who you are, you wear what you feel like fits and looks right on you. And that’s it.

So what shifted for you, that you realized you could carry a purple crocodile Birkin bag in 2007, or that you could show up to a GQ shoot in 2015 with a pastel Céline coat? At the time, wearing even select pieces of womenswear was unheard of.
Well, I’m ashamed to say it was an aesthetic choice first. I liked something, and I put it on. Then the philosophy came behind it. And I do have my lines. Like, I can’t wear no skirt. Nor am I interested in wearing a blouse. That’s not my deal. But things that are made for women that I feel will look good on me—that I like—I will wear.

Read the whole interview here.