Pharrell Williams' famed Vivienne Westwood hat is now in an exhibition about the power of social media
There was a while when we we’re convinced we’d never see Pharrell Williams out of that Vivienne Westwood hat. Now it’s part of an exhibition at The Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism and media in Washington DC, as an example of the power of social media.
The modified 10 gallon-style creation he debuted at the Grammys in January sparked one of the best tweet-offs of 2014 when American fast food chain Arby’s tweeted, ‘Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYS’ and received over 80,000 retweets.
It turns out Arby’s was serious about obtaining that hat, which even earned its own twitter handle, @PharrellsHat. The restaurant chain subsequently purchased it for $44,100 (£27,000) when Pharrell put the original topper (he’s got one in every colour) up for auction on Ebay to benefit the children’s charity, From One Hand To AnOTHER.
Pharrell’s hat will be on show at the Newseum until 26 October. This will certainly give Washington residents something to get ‘happy’ about…