Virgil Abloh

At 41 years old, Virgil Abloh has this physical status:

After getting his architecture degree, Abloh interned at Fendi in the same class as rapper Kanye West in 2009. Placed in the company's Rome, Italy office, the two began a collaborative relationship. During his work with the rapper and designer, Abloh caught the eye of the Louis Vuitton CEO, Michael Burke. Later that year, Abloh and West's artistic partner, Don C, launched a retail store, called the RSVP Gallery, located in Chicago. 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. A year later, West appointed Abloh the creative director of his creative agency, Donda.

In 2011, West asked him to serve as the artistic director for the 2011 Jay-Z/West album Watch the Throne. In 2012, Abloh designed the cover art for WZRD’s self-titled debut. In 2012, Abloh launched his first company, Pyrex Vision. He purchased deadstock clothing from Ralph Lauren for $40, screen-printed designs on them and sold them for prices upward of $550. He closed the company down a year later as he did not intend it to be a commercial enterprise, but an artistic experiment.

Abloh 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. 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. 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. Abloh said his first Off-White collection was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's floating glass home, Farnsworth House, and presented it with references to the Baroque artist Caravaggio and the early 20th century German design studio The Bauhaus. The brand lead generated widespread attention for his apparel beginning in Paris, then expanding to China, Japan, and the United States. The clothing line can be identified through its use of quotation marks, zip-ties, capital letters, and barricade tape. He launched the company's women's wear line in 2014 and showed the collections at Paris Fashion Week. His line was selected as a finalist for the LVMH Prize, an industry award, but lost to Marques'Almeida and Jacquemus. Abloh launched his first concept store for Off-White in Tokyo, Japan, where he started the company's furniture arm, Grey Area. Through Abloh's re-designing he exercised his self-made rule of only editing the shoes 3% of the way because he was intrigued by still maintaining the original design of the shoe.

By the end of 2018, an index of sales and consumer sentiment ranked Off-White as the hottest label in the world, surpassing Gucci. Virgil also partnered up with the Swedish furniture company IKEA to design furniture for apartments and houses as well as easy to carry tote bags with the word sculpture imprinted in the middle. The collection was named Markerad, which is a Swedish word meaning "clear-cut; crisp; pronounced", and was released in 2019. Virgil envisioned that the collection would include practical furniture featuring contemporary designs. In 2017, he was asked to design a new collection in conjunction with Nike entitled "The Ten" and he re-designed a variety of the company's best-selling shoes. Abloh worked towards fulfilling his vision for the IKEA collection by sketching out drafts of generic pieces of furniture, while adding his own aesthetics to the designs by using a doorstop to level out furniture items. Abloh worked on designs for chairs, coffee tables, beds, storage cabinets, mirrors, and carpets apart of his collaboration with IKEA. Abloh used quotation marks to convey detachment from society and social norms. During the rise in neo-nationalism in 2017 Abloh worked with conceptual artist Jenny Holzer to create a line emphasizing the positive aspects of immigration, cultural integration, and globalization. In December 2017, he worked with Holzer again to design T-shirts for Planned Parenthood in response to the Women's March on Washington.

On March 25, 2018, Abloh was named artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear ready wear line, making him the first person of African descent to lead the brand's menswear line, as well as one of the few black designers at the helm of a major French fashion house. Upon his acceptance of the position, he stated, "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". Abloh showed his first collection for Louis Vuitton at the 2018 Men's Fashion Week at the Palais-Royal gardens in Paris. Rihanna was the first well known person to wear Abloh prior to this watershed show. Playboi Carti, Steve Lacy, A$AP Nast, Dev Hynes, and Kid Cudi walked the runway for Abloh's debut Vuitton show. Abloh was in high demand thereafter for his designs, creating an original outfit designed for Serena Williams to wear throughout the 2018 US Open, a collaboration with Nike. On June 5, 2018, Abloh released a special collaboration with the luggage manufacturer Rimowa, a transparent suitcase in a limited edition. In March 2019, Abloh collaborated with Ikea to start making furniture for millennials, ranging from cabinets, rugs, coffee tables, and chairs. Abloh incorporated different elements of style, such as his quotation marks around certain words and putting it on different articles of clothing, and in this case different types of furniture. For example, Abloh created a "Door Stop Interruption" on a chair by adding a doorstop on one of the chair legs to make it elevated. One of Abloh's most popular items is the Frakta Bag. It is beige with the text "SCULPTURE" imprinted on the side. In March 2019 Abloh teamed up with SSENSE to release a workout collection. This collection contained a variety of workout clothes ranging from; matching leggings and sports bras, athletic sweaters, and crop tops. The collection incorporated some of Abloh's signature designs by including the Off-White yellow sign wrapping around the waist of the pants and bottom of the sports bras. Abloh also included a three-dimensional addition of his four-way arrows, creating a cross, on the front of the tops and pants.

Abloh was featured in conversation with his friend and frequent collaborator Takashi Murakami on the cover of the fall 2018 issue of Cultured magazine.

In 2019, Abloh was appointed to the board of directors of The Council of Fashion Designers of America. The council seeks to promote the American fashion industry.

Abloh created a custom Off-White gown and veil for Hailey Bieber's wedding day. On the veil, he included his famous quotation marks design around the words "till death do us part".

In July 2021, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced it would be taking a 60% stake in Off-White, with founder Abloh, then the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton, retaining the remaining 40%. At the same time, Abloh was given greater creative control across the LVMH brand.

Abloh worked frequently with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Abloh was given a solo art show in Murakami's Kaikai Kiki art gallery in Tokyo, Japan. On numerous occasions, their artwork has been showcased together such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Murakami's shop Oz Zingaro in Tokyo. In 2018, Abloh and Murakami collaborated on a series of exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery's outposts in London, Paris, and Beverly Hills. In 2019, Abloh introduced the MCA speech campaign for the CTA's Red Line train wrap.

Abloh's first solo art exhibition occurred at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2019. After Chicago, Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech traveled to the High Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and Qatar Museums, as part of the Qatar-USA 2021 Year of Culture. The exhibition was intended to offer a mid-career retrospective of Abloh's endeavors in art, design and music. From July 1, 2022 – January 29, 2023, The Brooklyn Museum is displaying Figures of Speech. Brooklyn's edition of the exhibition spans the two decades of the artist’s practice, including collaborations with artist Takashi Murakami, musician Kanye West, and architect Rem Koolhaas, among others; material from his fashion label Off-White; and items from Louis Vuitton, where he served as the first Black menswear artistic director. The installation also offers a space for gathering and performances, designed to counter the historical lack of space afforded to Black artists and Black people in cultural institutions.

Abloh's interest in music led him to DJing beginning in his teens. He DJ'd at house parties throughout high school and college. His influences included DJ's A-Trak, Benji B, and Gilles Peterson. Over the years, Abloh gained recognition as a DJ and started playing shows internationally. He played at Hi Ibiza and was also booked for the 2019 edition of the Tomorrowland festival. Abloh released his first single "Orvnge" with German DJ/producer Boys Noize in January 2018. In June 2019, Abloh was named to a DJ residency at Wynn Las Vegas's XS Nightclub, with Wynn also agreeing to open an Off-White store.

In May 2019 Pioneer, maker of DJ consoles, announced its collaboration with Abloh in design of its transparent CDJ-2000NXS2 and DJM-900NXS2 models. The consoles were displayed at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art in the Figures of Speech Exhibition.

In June 2020, Abloh designed the original cover for Pop Smoke album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. The original cover came under heavy criticism from fans. On July 2, a new cover, designed by Ryder Ripps, was revealed along with the album's release. Abloh also worked on album art for artists Lil Uzi Vert, Kid Cudi, and Westside Gunn.

In 2021, he launched a new monthly two-hour internet radio show on Worldwide FM, "Imaginary Radio" c/o Virgil Abloh. The show featured DJ sets and interviews with musicians and other creatives; early guests included artists like electronic artist Omar-S and Alex Sowinski of BadBadNotGood. He previously had a show on Apple Music 1 called "TELEVISED RADIO". Five episodes were released between 2018 and 2020.

Source