Journey to Fashion:

Virgil grew up in the city of Chicago to Ghanaian immigrants. During his childhood Alboh’s father ran a paint company whilst his mother read a seamstress. Growing up around creativity Virgil adopted a love for music, fashion and sports – specifically basketball and soccer.

Abloh and his childhood friend Chris Eaton both discovered graffiti art in middle school, it wasn’t long before they were experimenting with their own art forms – mirroring his more recent designs of graffiti art on Off White t-shirts. Virgil said he had always been fascinated by the designs on the soccer shirt logos.

After high school in 1998 Abloh became a civil engineer which he hadn’t been very content doing so after this he persued a degree in archectire which had a large impact on his later aspiration of a designer and who he was a designer.

Despite being at school in Chicago Virgil spend his time making trips to New York City, allowing him to form connections within the fashion community. During school, Virgil’s professor encouraged him to take an interest utilising the Adobe Suite – this is where Virgil first began designing t shirts which then led to the creation of his first streetwear brand, and although you make think it was ‘PRYEX’, Virgil’s first streetwear brand was actually ‘Fort-Home’ but it never really grew.

This led to Virgil becoming the consecutive consultant, at 22, for Kanye West after designing concepts for G.O.O.D Music [a record label founded by Kanye West]. In 2009, Virgil took on the role of art director for the album’s cover at work ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ then working closely with other artists such as Kid Cudi, Pusha T and Nas.he also worked on the cover art for ‘808’s and Heartbreak’ and ‘Yeezus’. This led him to his role as the creative director of DONDA- where he took the responsibility of designing and directing the art of ‘Watch the Throne’ by Kanye West and Jay-Z which was awarded with a highly deserved Grammy Nomination.

During the ‘Watch the Throne’ tour Virgil found himself in London where he developed a liking for DJing under the name ‘Flat White’.

Virgil then took on an independent project. The project being ‘PYREX’. PYREX’s collection ‘youth always wins’ debuted in December 2012. Through PYREX was a message and deeper meaning – highlighting the stigma that the youth of his home town Chicago only prosper by selling drugs – hence the use of the name PYREX, the name of the instrument known for its use of making drugs. By wearing PYREX you weren’t only supporting a street wear brand but becoming apart of a movement.

In 2012 Off-White was founded after the unfortunate shutdown of PYREX through a lawsuit from the pyrex company for the use of their brand name. Off-White headquarters being based in Milan sent the message out to thousands that this was going to be a major, upcoming brand. In 2015 Off-White was nominated for a Louis Vuitton force for young designers, although he didn’t win this further legitimised Virgil as a designer in the fashion industry.

Whilst running the brand Off-White Virgil had been working on one of his biggest projects ‘The Ten’ the first Nike x Off White collaboration in 2017 which consisted of Virgil’s reconstruction of 10 of Nike’s sneaker pairs which Michael Jordan personally endorsed This was a key moment in Virgil’s career.

In the fall of 2018 Kim Jones, the former creative director for Louis Vuitton announced his leave official leave from Louis Vuitton and to Dior and who better to take his place than his fellow designer Virgil Abloh. Before the announcement of his replacement Kim Jones had also worn a pair of Off-White Jordan 1s to his final show as creative director, possibly hinting to who would take his place next.

Michael Burke, CEO of Fendi during the period Virgil and Kanye’s internship took place was now the CEO and Chairman of Louis Vuitton. Burke had followed Virgil’s career and decided there couldn’t be a more obvious choice.

With Kim Jones gone there was a big spot for Abloh to fill and take Louis Vuitton to the next level along with the title of the FIRST BLACK creative director of the brand.

The Palais Royal is where the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring collection of 2019 was showcased, where Virgil presented his first legendary collect for the luxury brand. At the end of the show, Virgil walked the runway showered with applause – where he shared an emotional moment with longtime friend Kanye West.

His final works:

Months prior to his death, Virgil worked on one of his last projects. The Louis Vuitton and Air Force 1 collaboration. This collaboration broke the walls between luxury and streetwear brands. Since the drop of Louis Vuitton & Nike we have seen a rise in streetwear labels and luxury labels working together.

---

Abloh certainly left his mark in the world of music. A man who became the face of versatility and creating a whole new culture of creativity, all whilst privately battling Cancer – carving the path and acting as an immortal role model for young black creatives across the world.

“Life is so short you can’t waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do.”

-Virgil Abloh.

Pages: 1 2