Virgil Abloh

Abloh is presenting one of his ideasGSAPPstudent [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]Supreme, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton are high-quality fashion designs that many people wear for either special occasions or as casual wear. Virgil Abloh is not only one of them, but he has created a product that is still increasing in popularity to this day. Abloh and his sister were raised in nearby Rockford, by Ghanaian immigrant parents (Yotka). At a young age he began designing t-shirts incorporating things he did on a daily basis like skateboarding. As he got older, he opened his first concept store in the Aoyama area in Tokyo and later opened some more stores. Soon, his company began to rapidly increase in popularity, and now, Abloh has won many awards across the board and still is collaborating with other companies. He has shown his passion in fashion designing from when he was a kid, and cooperating with others to not only help himself, but also others around him. Virgil Abloh is not only a hero, but a fashion designer who shows his passion, cooperates with others, and uses pop culture images to help influence hypebeasts and elite fashion designers.

Louis Vuitton logoLouis Vuitton [Public domain]Everyone has a passion, and for Abloh, it was being a fashion designer, as he started as a kid learning from his mom. Abloh’s mother was a seamstress and taught Abloh skills in making clothing. “At a young age he began designing T-shirts… Abloh says that he wants to design for both ‘the tourist and the purist’—the hypebeasts and the fashion élite… Abloh has invoked Basquiat, Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson, figures who have come to represent the essence of pop culture” (Félix). Having a dream as a little kid of what you want to be and keeping it throughout your life is hard to do, as most people change careers one or more times to finally find something that they like. However, Abloh’s passion for fashion has allowed him to keep the same dream and he expands his dream day by day. His passion has allowed him to bring more fashion around the world and express things through his clothing, such as pop culture to help these pop culture stars gain popularity which can be very hard to do. Abloh believed in his passion and trusted that he could do well even though he is black: “Abloh is the first black man in Louis Vuitton’s 164-year history to debut a men’s-wear line… the success of Abloh’s Milan-based luxury-streetwear brand Off-White” (Collins). Abloh’s passion for fashion allowed him to debut a menswear line because he stuck with fashion throughout his life. He also proved many people wrong, that if you have a passion for something do your best at it. Abloh did this and created a streetwear brand named Off-White and proved wrong many people who doubted him because he was black. Not only is he the founder of Off-White, he is now also with Louis Vuitton, and this shows people that if you have a passion for something, go for it. Virgil Abloh has proven his passion for fashion designing, which helps other people with popularity.

A world wide rapper he collaborated withrodrigoferrari [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]Abloh has cooperated with many other companies to make a design that will not only help both of them, but to help increase that fashion scene. Abloh begins to collaborate with others to not only help himself, but to help others: “Rumor has it that on the day of his graduation, he skips his final critique to take a meeting with Kanye West’s then-manager John Monopoly. West and Abloh begin officially working together soon after” (Yotka). Abloh has shown his will in collaborating with Kanye West's manager, and skipping something like his graduation must have been a tough decision to make. He skipped a memorable moment just to collaborate with someone that also has the same passion has him. Collaborating is very important for being a fashion designer because it allows multiple people to create something great that people can wear. Gale tells us how Abloh cooperates with other people around him: "He announced an exhibition with famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, opened an Off-White store in New York, and had collaborations with shoe designer Jimmy Choo and sneaker company Nike" (“Virgil Abloh”). When Abloh’s mother taught Abloh, they were cooperating together to practice their skills, and eventually he was as good as her. For Abloh, this must have required a lot of listening and applying for his own use, and because he did this, he was able to create a brand. He also collaborated with Kanye West to make other projects, which allowed him to start making a living from fashion designing. With his successes that he made, he expanded from that and started to collaborate with other people, such as Jimmy Choo and Takashi Murakami. Cooperating with these people allowed him to open up his own store in New York, which is a popular place for tourists, which must have been very challenging to get there. His cooperation with other people has allowed him to be successful and shows other people that they can do it if they are willing to open up and work together with others, which can be a huge responsibility.

Virgil Abloh uses cooperation to invent something new for the fashion industry and his passion to help him strive to his goal. His passion as a little kid allowed him to make clothes for others to not only make a profit, but to also help build the foundation on how to make clothes. Allowing this to occur, it allowed him to improve the fashion scene so it is better than it was before. Also, he is also the youngest and one of the first African Americans who has started a fashion designing business that became this successful. Then, his collaboration allowed him to not only make friends in the business, but to also to make clothing for not only males, but also females. Yokta believes that Virgil Abloh is inspirational: "Abloh launches womenswear for Off-White and begins showing his men’s and women’s collections during Paris Fashion Week… Abloh opens his first concept store in the Aoyama area of Tokyo. The store features a watercooler with Off-White branded cups that visitors take for free and resell on the secondary market" (Yotka). This shows Abloh being an inspiration because he is showing other companies that you can make elite fashion for women and be successful in the business. He took this risk of making women's clothing, and it pays off as his business gained more and more popularity to this day. Also, his youth allows him to have even more choices like these which can expand his business. Abloh inspires me because I am also young, but my passion may not be for fashion designing even though I'm very interested in that. He taught me that cooperating with other people and having a passion for something can allow you to be successful in life. Abloh’s successes has led his Off-White design to become as hype or even better than Supreme, Gucci, and Burberry.

Works Cited

Collins, K. Austin. “How Virgil Abloh Conquered Streetwear and Took Men's High Fashion By Storm.”  Vanities, Vanity Fair, 1 Aug. 2018, www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/08/virgil-abloh-louis-vuitton-designer-director.

Félix , Doreen St. “Virgil Abloh, Menswear's Biggest Star.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2019, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/18/virgil-abloh-menswears-biggest-star.

"Virgil Abloh." Gale Biography in Context, Gale, 2018. Biography In Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1650011066/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid=d0e67dd0.  Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.

Yotka, Steff. “A Brief History of Virgil Abloh's Meteoric Rise.” Vogue, Vogue, 4 Apr. 2018, www.vogue.com/article/virgil-abloh-biography-career-timeline.