Bows, bottles and birthday toasts mark the Moët & Chandon Pharrell Williams Limited Edition Collection, a collaboration of blowouts and bubbly dominating center stage. 

Courtesy of Moët & Chandon

The French winery is, after all, a sultan of celebration, its sparkling champagne occupying the spot of preferred birthday toast elixir. Actor Paul Newman sipped some for his 40th in 1965, Scarlett Johansson let it pour for her 30th, and Roger Federer regularly celebrates with a glass when celebrating with family and friends. 

Their latest ultra-exclusive line of bubbly reimagines the birthday experience, not through the eyes of the celebrated, but through that of the celebrators, the ones responsible for creating universal moments of merriment worth remembering. With a collective joy at the heart of the collaboration, each detail is crafted to honor those marking their birthdays and those gathering to celebrate. 

Courtesy of Moët & Chandon

Every day, 22 million people worldwide mark their birthdays. And as much as those moments are about celebrating our own circle around the sun, they also illuminate the rituals of joy spread by those around us. In the same way that it’s not about the club, it’s about the company, birthday protocol is not about the gift, but the person giving it (well, most of the time). Nonetheless, the limited-edition bottles born out of this latest partnership are quite the lavish gift. 

Courtesy of Moët & Chandon

For the design, Moët and Pharrell dived into the archives of the champagne House, finding that what today is the iconic tie on the bottle, was originally a bow in 1892. This motif is at the heart of the Bow Capsule, a selection of sparkling wines ー Grand Vintage Collection 2003, Brut Impérial, and Nectar Impérial Rosé ー featuring an oversized fabric bow laden with pearled beads, Crafted by Parisian embroiderers Atelier Baqué Molinié, the accent is detachable to also be worn as a classy little brooch. 

Courtesy of Moët & Chandon

The brand’s most emblematic champagne, Brut Impérial, receives Pharrell Williams’ never-failing reinvention. Dressed in a selection of gold, midnight blue, or deep red, as well as white for the Nectar Impérial Rosé, the designer signs each creation with white dotted lettering, a gesture evocative of luminescent pearls, on the box and directly onto the bottle. Continuing the codes of pearly polish, the bottle’s red royal seal is transformed into a pearl monogram of Pharrell’s interconnected initials.  

Courtesy of Moët & Chandon

As for the gem of the lot, the Jewel Masterpiece manifests as a celebratory emblem of foolhardy French chic. With only 30 numbered pieces available, each bottle is nothing short of a mini monument to birthdays past, present, and future. The bottle, swathed in mirrored chrome, is embellished by a selection of hand-lettering added by artist Astrid de Chaillé with 89 embossed relief pearls. As for the oversized bejeweled bow adorning the bottleneck, that audacious artifact required 300 hours of handwork using over 7,300 pearled beads. 

As much as we’d love to say it’s not about the gift, but the giver, we may have to make an exception for that one.