Virgil Abloh, founder of luxury fashion label, Off-White, and artistic director at Louis Vuitton (men’s wear) passed away from cardiac angiosarcoma, a form of cancer on November 28, 2021. The creative genius was aged 41 years and endured a two-year long battle with the illness, which he preferred keeping private, before passing away.
The designer, who was the child of two Ghanaian immigrants, Nee and Eunice Abloh, grew up amidst in skate and hip-hop culture. While he did not have a formal education in fashion design, he went on to study civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, whilst picking up basic sartorial skills from his mother, who was a seamstress.
Image Source: Bbc.com
Abloh, who worked initially with rapper Kanye West for a few creative projects, started his first venture called Pyrex Vision in 2012, where he purchased deadstock Ralph Lauren shirts for $40 each, and screen printed reselling them for $550 each. He eventually went on to launch his high-end streetwear brand, Off-white, a favourite amongst industry insiders and street-style fanatics alike. With Off-White, a fashion label that ended up being a blend of, luxury, art, music, and travel, ABloh also launched its womenswear collections in 2014 and started showcasing at Paris Fashion Week, proving the label was a lot more than just confined to being a streetwear label. Abloh also collaborated with big names like Nike, Warby Parker, Jacob the Jeweler, and Jimmy Choo.
Image Source: Gq.com, Lead image: Instagram/virgilabloh
As Off-White went on to gain accolades and popularity globally over the next few years, Abloh was named the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections in 2018. “It is an honor for me to accept this position. I find the heritage and creative integrity of the house are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times,” he said back then in a statement. The position made him one of the most powerful Black designers in the fraternity.
In 2020, he also established the “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund, which raised $1 million to encourage Black students in fashion. Even whilst his battle with cancer, he continued to carry on his responsibilities creatively at both Off-White and Louis Vuitton, where his stake was also increased to 60 per cent earlier this year. “Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom. The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow, and we are all thinking of his loved ones after the passing of their husband, their father, their brother or their friend,” said Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH.
He is survived by his wife Shannon Abloh, his children Lowe Abloh and Grey Abloh, his sister Edwina Abloh, his parents, and a ground-breaking legacy of a successful yet revolutionary fashion journey.