"Where's the credit?": Outrage over Pharrell Williams' Tiffany glasses

American rapper Pharrell Williams has established his horizons across the music world as well as the fashion world. At Kenzo's fall 2022 show in Paris, the musician dropped a fashion bomb. However, it wasn't his clothing that caught everyone's attention but his, rather interesting, choice of eye-wear.

The ace musician hinted at collaborating with Tifanny & Co. by wearing the almond-shaped sunglasses with diamonds at the rim and emerald studs at each temple. He later posted a series of photographs on his Instagram handle flaunting the eyewear. Reportedly, with a flash of a big smile, he told WWD,

"Tiffany and I are engaged".

Sunglasses would be "first of many things that I'm gonna do with Tiffany," he added.

Regardless of how exciting the news of this collaboration between Pharrell Williams and Tiffany & Co. is, netizens were focused on the striking resemblance between the design of the new sunglasses and the rare spectacles from the Mughal empire.

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Furious reactions to Pharrell Williams Tiffany sunglasses

Furious fans call out William and Tiffany & Co. for copying the Mughal era sunglasses (Image by Sportskeeda)

Fashion watchdog, Diet Prada pointed out the similarity between the new sunglasses design and the antique glasses which date back to 17th century.

Jewelery expert Annabel Davidson posted pictures of herself wearing the original pair of sunglasses and compared the striking resemblance to the new custom made design of Tiffany & Co.

She said,

“I think Tiffany & Co. made a mistake in not referencing the pair so many of us saw last year.”

Tiffany and Co. posted a picture of Pharrell Williams wearing the sunglasses where they claimed that the piece was custom-designed but did not credit the inspiration from the sunglasses from the Mughal empire.

People on the internet have been brutally honest in calling out the artist as well as the label.

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All about the original Mughal Spectacles

Sotheby's official website describes the artifact as a pair of Mughal spectacles - emerald lenses set in frames of mounted diamonds, India, lenses circa 17th century, frames 19th century.

The spectacle comprises of "two flat cut emeralds of drop-shape form set in silver and gold frames mounted with old-cut smaller diamonds and emeralds" describes Sotheby's.

The estimated price of the original spectacles is around £1.5 million GBP to £2.5 million GBP which is around $2 million to $3.4 million USD. The spectacles are part of the Art of the Islamic World and India collection by Sotheby's.

"Surpassing the imagination, the following two pairs of spectacles, set with emerald and diamond lenses, were originally conceived from gemstones that would have weighed over 300 and 200 carats respectively. The origin of the emeralds can be traced all the way to the Muzo mines of Colombia, whereas the diamond lenses most probably came from the famous Golconda mines of Southern India. These represent not only a technical feat in their cleavage, but also extraordinary boldness and invention, one which is also rooted in tradition. These two extraordinary pairs of spectacles, have never before appeared on the market but have been the focus of a multitude of scholarly research. The following catalogue note will draw on information gleaned from detailed scientific and historical analyses to understand their conception and production," describes Sothebys.com in the Catalogue note.