Fashion NewsUpdated

The fashion world dresses in mourning to say goodbye to Virgil Abloh, the genius who has redefined the world of fashion and luxury as we knew him at the helm of Louis Vuitton's men's line.

They say that great visionaries arrive once a generation and it could be that ours said goodbye to theirs yesterday. After a secret battle with a rare heart cancer, Virgil Abloh died yesterday in the city of Chicago, although he lived in Paris, where he worked as artistic director for the firm Louis Vuttion and for his Off-White brand.

Although Abloh's name has been familiar to many for a relatively short time, his career as a designer, DJ and creative goes back years and has origins and alliances that not many know. He has grown and developed under the tutelage of rapper Kanye West (it is even rumored that he skipped his graduation act to attend an interview with his manager) and has crossed boundaries never before reached for a young man of ancestry. African American.

Virgil Abloh's career

Since his origins in Chicago, Abloh has worked many times behind the scenes in the most important landmarks of popular and urban culture until reaching the point that his streetwear label Off-White got him the role that his same mentor wanted: the keys. of the artistic direction of Louis Vuitton.

2002

Rumor has it that Virgil Abloh skipped his civil engineering graduation ceremony to go to an interview with Kanye West's then-manager, Alec Monopoly. What is known for certain is that Abloh began working with West that same year.

2009

Abloh and West land an internship at Fendi where he manages to catch the eye of Michael Burke, CEO of Louis Vuitton. It is also in this year that the famous group photo of Kanye West is taken at Paris Fashion Week.

2010

Virgil Abloh is officially named creative director of DONDA, Kanye West's creative agency. There, Abloh takes the creative reins on many of the most acclaimed musical projects in the urban genre, among his achievements at the agency is the design of the famous album cover of West "YEEZUS".

2012

Abloh founds his first fashion line, Pyrex Vision, which consisted of designing Polo brand plaid shirts printed with the brand's graphics: "PYREX 23", in homage to his childhood idol, Michael Jordan. .

2013

Virgil Abloh closes the doors of Pyrex Vision and founds his new firm: Off-White. A multidisciplinary proposal with a focus on fashion where it combines codes and languages ​​from the world of streetwear with a vision of neo-luxury.

2014

Abloh opens Off-White's womenswear division and begins showing his collections at Paris Fashion Week.

2015

Off-White is nominated for the LVMH Prize, but Jaquemus is the winner.

2017

Abloh's signature, Off-White launches together with Nike "The Ten", a collection of the brand's most famous sneaker models reinterpreted with Abloh's vision. The collection was an instant hit and they have become one of the most desired models for sneaker collectors and streetwear enthusiasts alike. There has since been a relationship between the two firms where they have collaborated on multiple more models since then.

2018

Abloh is named artistic director of Louis Vuitton's men's division following the departure of Kim Jones, whom Abloh considered a friend and mentor. This signing marked the first creative director of African-American descent at the helm of a Parisian firm. His first show took place at the Palais Royale and was considered a resounding success. The most famous personalities of popular culture attended and that is where the famous photo of the embrace between Abloh and West in tears, celebrating their success, took place. Since then, its streetwear-focused language has redefined the brand and its aesthetic.

2019

Abloh opens his exhibition "Figures of Speech", a look inside his creative process throughout his entire career in different creative disciplines that has already been exhibited in multiple museums. The same year the capsule collection of Ikea in collaboration with Abloh, entitled "Markerad", comes to light. Months later he debuts a capsule collection for Louis Vuitton alongside Nigo, an acclaimed Japanese streetwear designer who is now at the helm of Kenzo.

He was also appointed as a member of the CFDA, a union of American designers with a mission to promote American fashion design throughout the world. To end the year, he designed Hailey Bieber's wedding dress.

2021

The sale of 60 percent of Off-White to the LVMH group is announced, although it remains as creative director and in control of the remaining 40 percent.

Abloh's creative vision and distinctive design language has succeeded in redefining modern concepts of fashion, luxury, designer and creativity and his legacy in the world of fashion will live on for years to come.

It may interest you