“I don’t represent the world as it is, but how I want it to be”. This is what Virgil Abloh replied in his last interview with the Corriere della Sera, when he was asked why his Vuitton style was always very cheerful.
He is described by those who have known him as “a rebel with sweet eyes”, characterized by obsessive love for his work, curiosity mixed with the ability to deepen and the promise made to himself to never let himself be tamed.
After all, our designer did not know any fences: he loved fashion but also music he enjoyed doing deejay, art, industrial design, constantly looking around to capture stimuli and communicate in a disruptive and immediate way.
Not even the French fashion house managed to escape the style of what would become its creative director as well as the first person of African origin to lead the menswear line of the brand breaking all barriers.
However, his climbing to success , that starts from the fashion streets of Chicago has more distant origins. He often encountered criticism but saw his darkest period right at the death of his stylist because of an angiosarcoma that took him away too early on November 28, 2021
Virgil Abloh was born on September 30, 1980 in Rockford, Illinois, to Ghanaian immigrant parents from his mother who was a seamstress, our designer has learned to sew.
With a degree in civil engineering he earned his Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, when Abloh was attending the institute there was a building in the campus under construction , designed by architect Rem Koolhaas (who had also worked on the runway collections for Prada ) it was precisely this fact that aroused his interest in fashion.
We recall the link with the famous musician Kanye West , from which he took on the role of Creative Director at Donda his creative agency, which accompanied him on his way to international fashion , opened thanks to an internship at Fendi.
In 2012 to redefine fashion as a democratic value, without barriers , he founded the OFF WHITE label, defined in 2018 , as the most popular in the world, surpassing even Gucci.
His aesthetic combining streetwear and luxury fashion , whose clothing line can be identified through the use of quotation marks he used to convey the detachment from society and social norms, zip ties, capital letters and barricaded tape, has impressed the whole fashion world but also many young people.
Based in Milan, Italy, the company has been described by Abloh as “the grey area between white and black as the off-white color” to investors and fashion critics.
One of his most famous creations is the wedding dress with personalized veil for Hailey Bieber’s wedding day.
On the veil, he included his famous quotation mark drawing around the words “until death do us part”.
Another wedding dress – youthful, graphic and completely unexpected – worn at the Met Gala by Kylie Jenner paid homage to that irreverent spirit that imbued all the creative parable of Abloh.
We mustn’t forget that he was a kind and nice person, who had also established a scholarship for young black designers and who during the rise of neo-nationalism in 2017 worked with Jenny Holzer to create a line that emphasized the positive aspects of immigration , Cultural integration and globalization and another line of T-shirts in response to the women’s march on Washington.
When Corriere della Sera asked him how he had become aware of his abilities, he replied:
«When I stopped looking for the approval of others, however, when I stopped adhering to the status quo and did it my way, I understood that I could do it»
According to the Wall Street Journal , our designer has reached an unusual world-renowned level for a designer, and as a figure of inspiration.
Mariakyara Novella e Flavia Lo Giudice, IIIAC
