Virgil Abloh, who died a year ago in November, caused a sensation and made history in 2018 when he was named creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear division, becoming the first black designer to hold the role at the venerable French fashion house and one one of the few to lead an important European luxury giant.
It was a huge blow for the designer and deejay, then just 37 years old. The son of middle-class Ghanaian immigrants, Abloh’s entry into high fashion six years earlier had been plagued by accusations of plagiarism and knee-jerk rejections from critics and commentators. But he would soon become a household name, his Off-White label jumping 31 places to take third place in the 2017 Lyst Index of the world’s most popular brands (it became number one on the list the following year).
At the same time, Abloh was making good on his promise to open the door behind him, mentoring numerous young designers of color through his Post-Modern scholarship fund, the NikeLab Chicago Re-Creation Center, the Free Game online educational series and more. He invited some 1,500 students to his first Louis Vuitton show, an event that also attracted Kanye “Ye” West, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky and fashion’s best and brightest. “I often refer to my career as a Trojan horse: It exists to traverse two spaces and allows other people to participate,” Abloh told WSJ. Magazine in 2021.
Just a few months after that interview, Abloh was dead, struck down by a rare heart cancer that he hid from the public. The fashion world hasn’t been the same since, and it still struggles to categorize Abloh’s unpackable creative output. Abloh himself rejected the “street wear” moniker that often accompanied his work, questioning it as a racist disparagement of his legitimacy. “The systems recognize me as different: They label the work streetwear, they say I’m not a designer, they say it’s not art, the list goes on,” Abloh told the hosts of the Ethical Fashion podcast in 2021. “I need to tell my own story. narrative. . . I’m not waiting for a narrative to come back about whether or not my work is valuable.”
Until now, public opinion has been on Abloh’s side. Figures of Speech, an exhibition of her work spanning music, fashion, architecture and design, has toured five art museums so far and been received with admiration at each one. The Brooklyn Museum, the first to host the exhibit since Abloh’s death, recently unveiled exclusive commemorative items from its iteration of the exhibit, which runs through January. After months of anticipation, Nike also released the limited edition lime green Air Force 1 Lows designed by Abloh and worn by exhibit security earlier this month, just as it did with the Lows worn in 2019 at the Museum of Chicago Contemporary Art (Blue Sky). blue with red accents) and in 2021 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (a vibrant marigold). As expected, they are already sold out.
Speculation still rages about Off-White’s future without Abloh. Ibrahim “Ib” Kamara, Abloh’s stylist, was appointed art and image director several months after Abloh’s death; the first Off-White collection created under his leadership hits the runways in early 2023. Louis Vuitton continues to salute the fallen designer, but as of this writing, the house has not named Abloh’s successor. Instead, those who best enshrine Abloh’s legacy will likely be the very enthusiasts he happily chatted with via Instagram direct messages and mentored, rather than the slow-moving institutions he couldn’t help but feel he he snuck in
In addition to founding his own brands, including Off-White, Abloh collaborated with many others: Equinox, Gore-Tex, Jimmy Choo, Kith, Sunglass Hut, and Timberland, to name a few. Listed below are the six most essential collaborations of his.
Source: news.google.com