During the launch of his brand, he received help from the New Guards Group, who also assisted many other designers and brands, such as Palm Angels, Heron Preston, and Marcelo Burlon. 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. Ībloh founded his first fashion house and second business overall in 2013 with the high-end streetwear brand Off-White, designing a logo inspired by Ben Kelly. Abloh on the inspiration behind founding high-end streetwear label, Off-White.
What my goal has been is to add an intellectual layer to it and make it credible In a large part streetwear is seen as cheap. 2013–2017: Off-White and mainstream success He closed the company down a year later as he did not intend it to be a commercial enterprise, but an artistic experiment. He purchased deadstock clothing from Ralph Lauren for $40, screen-printed designs on them and sold them for prices upward of $550. In 2012, Abloh launched his first company, Pyrex Vision. In 2012, Abloh designed the cover art for WZRD’s self-titled debut. In 2011, West asked him to serve as the artistic director for the 2011 Jay-Z/West album Watch the Throne. A year later, West appointed Abloh the creative director of his creative agency, Donda. The store became known for carrying a mixture of fashion apparel, and for its reflection of Abloh's style on his design for the store interior. Later that year, Abloh and West's artistic partner, Don C, launched a retail store, called the RSVP Gallery, located in Chicago. During his work with the rapper and designer, Abloh caught the eye of the Louis Vuitton CEO, Michael Burke. Placed in the company's Rome, Italy office, the two began a collaborative relationship. Career 2009–2013: Rise to prominence Īfter graduating from university, Abloh interned at Fendi in the same class as rapper Kanye West in 2009. Abloh first met popular musician Kanye West while working on his designs at a Chicago print shop. While studying architecture, he designed T-shirts and wrote on fashion and design for a well-known blog, The Brilliance. Koolhaas's building helped spark his interest in fashion. When Abloh was attending IIT, there was a building on campus under construction designed by the architect Rem Koolhaas (who had also worked on runway collections for Prada). He received his Master of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2006. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Abloh was raised in Rockford, where he attended Boylan Catholic High School, graduating in 1998. His mother was a seamstress and his father managed a paint company. Virgil Abloh was born on September 30, 1980, in Rockford, Illinois, to Ghanaian immigrant parents.
According to The Wall Street Journal, he reached a level of global fame unusual for a designer, and an inspirational figure, according to the BBC. Abloh's design aesthetic which bridged streetwear and luxury clothing was described as transformative by The New York Times. The first African-American to be artistic director at a French luxury fashion house, Abloh was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018. The two then began an artistic collaboration that would launch Abloh's career into founding Off-White. Abloh was also the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013.Ī trained architect, Abloh, who also worked in Chicago street fashion, entered the world of international fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009, alongside American rapper Kanye West. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilities across the LVMH brand in early 2021. Virgil Abloh ( / ˈ æ b l oʊ/ Septem– November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur.
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