The American designer, originally from Ghana, died on November 28 at the age of 41 from a rapidly progressing cancer.
The American designer, originally from Ghana, passed away on November 28th at the age of 41 from a rapidly progressing cancer. A multidisciplinary artist—architect, DJ, and designer—and a former collaborator of Kanye West, he succeeded in establishing his vision of fashion with his label Off-White in 2013 and its instantly recognizable logo. PARIS MODE INSIDER has revisited his career; go take a look.
OFF-WHITE, ITS STORY
The brand was founded in 2012, and its success is not recent, but today it reaches the heights of the biggest names in streetwear and luxury .
The Off-White brand manufactures many streetwear items that could be described as urban haute couture, but it is best known for its $3,000 sneakers, very expensive phone cases, noisy collaborations (custom by Off-white) that help fuel the sneaker resale industry (which is worth more than a billion dollars), industrial-patterned belts, seemingly non-functional, and also its experimental furniture.
Off-white is a streetwear brand designing highly sought-after urban clothing that currently projects an image of street luxury .
"Define the grey area between black and white as the color Off-White."
Young people from fairly well-off backgrounds in New York and Milan, pop stars and rappers from all media outlets and fashion magazines, and a large part of the haute couture elite, including Marc Jacobs, an Abloh fan from the beginning. But also, Julia Roberts and many others.
Off-White's use of quotation marks is a major factor in the relevance of this streetwear brand. Ordinary words enclosed in quotation marks emphasize and add value to the context of the word, creating new dimensions in the chosen words.
By presenting words as quotations, Virgil Abloh extracts them from their context and questions their seriousness. When he puts "Sculpture" on the side of a handbag, he provokes the viewer. What is the difference between a handbag and a work of art, is there really one?
VIRGIL ABLOH BIOGRAPHY
He was born in Chicago on September 30, 1980 of Ghanaian parents. Virgil Abloh studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin, then a master's degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Today he is a fashion designer, entrepreneur, artist and DJ. He has been the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection since March 2018.
Virgil ABLOH is one of the most prolific designers of his generation, constantly collaborating and partnering with streetwear brands (Nike, etc.).
West and Abloh interned together at Fendi during the summer of 2009, and said they weren't allowed to do much but became better friends, closer than ever. Abloh officially took over West's title of "creative director" in 2010.
All rappers now have a creative director (Rihanna has more or less 14).
