AOC shares exciting news about the ongoing collaboration between Pharrell Williams and adidas — Humanrace Samba Colors by Pharrell, a collection of luxury footwear in a depth of colorways that embody the diversity and energy of Humanrace’s DNA.

Last weekend at Pharrell’s ‘Something in the Water’ Festival in Virginia Beach, music lovers with an Atlantic Ocean view got their first look at five new Humanrace Samba colorways: Yellow, Orange, Pink, Lilac, and Red. A Humanrace green colorway is also available exclusively to friends and family of the brand.

Pharrell elevates the Samba with all-around high-end leather upper and leather shoelaces sourced from ECCO Leather, a world leader in innovative and premium leather.

ECCO Leather’s water-saving tanning technology saves 20 liters of water per hide. The result is environmentally more sustainable production but higher color saturation. Humanrace always uses non-toxic vegetable dyes, and AOC assumes that is the case here. Read the Humanrace sustainability pledges.

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Humanrace 'Clean' Beauty Skincare Is Pure Pharrell Williams Philosophy

Pharrell Williams has launched an epic skincare brand at humanrace.com. Not only does the brand name Humanrace dovetail perfectly with the singer/rapper/designer/entrepreneur’s philosophical mindset. But because the two words are typically split in typography, searching for the single word brings up Pharrell Williams’ new venture in Google’s top position. Nice — and I doubt he paid much for it.

Yes, it helps that Humanrace’s November 25 launch covers the current issue of Allure magazine, lensed by Ben Hassett. All the relevant details of Humanrace’s DNA are covered in Brennan Kilbane’s interview Pharrell Dives Into the Beauty Business.

The chief sensations officer of Humancare is perfectly at home Zooming from his Miami kitchen about the super simple, skin-loving essentials developed with his longtime dermatologist, Elena Jones.

Eyeing the New South

It was an impactful, online New York Times ad recruiting artists to Virginia that first attracted me to Virginia Beach. That July 2017 midnight sighting was followed by the August 12, 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. That memorable weekend left me wondering if a move to Virginia was realistically in my destiny.

My cousin Jo and I spent several November 2017 days in Virginia three months later, and I remained positive about the move — highly impacted by the ‘truths’ about Jefferson that were openly-discussed in our tour at Monticello.

Looking out over a desolate, wintery Civil War battlefield was sobering post-Charlottesville, and I felt more strongly than ever that creating a New South was part of my older and wiser DNA.

I can say with total honesty, though, that news of Pharrell Williams’ 2019 ‘Something in the Water’ festival sealed the deal, removing any further hesitation about moving to Virginia. All systems became GO!

The beauty entrepreneur’s Allure interview with Brennan Kilbane delves into activism in a post George Floyd world.