Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton and Off-White founder, passes at age 41 from a rare form of cancer. Although this comes as a shock to many people. It’s Virgil Ablohs’s career that we’ll always remember. As a black man, Virgil didn’t only climb to the highest of heights in fashion but he managed to disrupt the industry, continuously bringing innovation to the table. He elevated streetwear and become the leader of trendsetting. He inspired millions of fellow entrepreneurs to follow their dreams. With all that being said, we just wanted to take the time to highlight our favorite moments of Vigils career.
Pyrex Vision-Before Louis Vuitton
Before Virgil became one of the most-prominent names in the fashion industry, he served as the artistic director for the 2011 Jay-Z/West album Watch the Throne. In 2012, Abloh launched his first company, Pyrex Vision. He purchased deadstock clothing from Ralph Lauren for $40, screen-printed designs on them, and sold them for prices upward of $550. The stated goal of Pyrex Vision was to represent the importance of youth culture, by centering the designs around a garment that most youth would notice from gym class. Virgil’s ideas are clearly geared around the importance of the now. He closed the company down a year later as he did not intend it to be a commercial enterprise, but an artistic experiment.
Off-White and Mainstream Success
Abloh founded his first fashion house and second business overall in 2013 with the high-end streetwear brand Off-White, Based in Milan, Italy, the company was described by Abloh as “the gray area between black and white as the color off-white” to investors and fashion critics. During the launch of his brand, he received help from the New Guards Group. Abloh said his first Off-White collection was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s floating glass home, Farnsworth House, and presented it with references to the Baroque artist Caravaggio and the early 20th-century German design studio The Bauhaus.
The brand lead generated widespread attention for his apparel beginning in Paris, then expanding to China, Tokyo, Japan, and the United States. The clothing line is identified through its use of quotation marks, zip-ties, capital letters, and barricade tape. He launched the company’s women’s wear line in 2014 and showed the collections at Paris Fashion Week. His line was selected as a finalist for the LVMH Prize, an industry award, but lost to Marques’Almeida and Jacquemus. Abloh launched his first concept store for Off-White in Tokyo, Japan, where he started the company’s furniture arm, Grey Area.
2018–2021: Louis Vuitton
Abloh incorporated the LV logo in his debut menswear collection for the brand.
On March 25, 2018, Abloh was named artistic director of Louis Vuitton‘s menswear ready wear line, making him the first person of African descent to lead the brand’s menswear line, as well as one of the few black designers at the helm of a major French fashion house. Upon his acceptance of the position, he stated, “It is an honor for me to accept this position. I find the heritage and creative integrity of the house are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times”. Abloh showed his first collection for Louis Vuitton at the 2018 Men’s Fashion Week at the Palais-Royal gardens in Paris. Rihanna was the first well-known person to wear Abloh prior to this watershed show. Playboi Carti, Steve Lacy, A$AP Nast, Dev Hynes, and Kid Cudi walked the runway for Abloh’s debut Vuitton show.
Abloh was in high demand thereafter for his designs, collaborating with Nike to create an original outfit designed for Serena Williams to wear throughout the 2018 US Open. On June 5, 2018, Abloh released a special collaboration with the luggage manufacturer Rimowa, a transparent suitcase in a limited edition. In March 2019, Abloh collaborated with Ikea to start making furniture for millennials, ranging from cabinets, rugs, coffee tables, and chairs. Abloh incorporated different elements of style, such as his quotation marks around certain words and putting it on different articles of clothing, and in this case different types of furniture. For example, Abloh created a “Door Stop Interruption” on a chair by adding a doorstop on one of the chair legs to make it elevated.
One of Abloh’s most popular items is the Frakta Bag. It is beige with the text “SCULPTURE” imprinted on the side. In March of 2019 Abloh teamed up with SSENSE to release a workout collection. This collection contained a variety of workout clothes ranging from; matching leggings and sports bras, athletic sweaters, and crop tops. The collection incorporated some of Abloh’s signature designs by including the Off-White yellow sign wrapping around the waist of the pants and bottom of the sports bras. Abloh also included a three-dimensional addition of his four-way arrows, creating a cross, on the front of the tops and pants.
Abloh was featured in conversation with his friend and frequent collaborator Takashi Murakami on the cover of the fall 2018 issue of Cultured magazine.
In 2019, Abloh was appointed to the board of directors of The Council of Fashion Designers of America. The council seeks to promote the American fashion industry.
Abloh created a custom Off-White gown and veil for Hailey Bieber‘s wedding day. On the veil, he included his famous quotation marks design around the words “till death do us part”.
In July 2021, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced it would be taking a 60% stake in Off-White, with founder Abloh, then the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton, retaining the remaining 40%. At the same time, Abloh was given greater creative control across the LVMH brand.
