Virgil Abloh’s mother was a seamstress who taught him to sew. His father managed a paint company. Both had emigrated from Ghana to the United States. Their son became one of the most influential designers of his generation.
Abloh was born on 30 September 1980 in Rockford, Illinois. He studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then earned a master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where the modernist buildings of Mies van der Rohe influenced his thinking about design.
Kanye West
Abloh met Kanye West in the early 2000s and became his creative director, working on album artwork, stage design and merchandise. The two interned together at Fendi in Rome in 2009, an episode that became part of fashion folklore.
Off-White
In 2012, Abloh launched Pyrex Vision, printing on existing clothes, then founded Off-White in 2013. The Milan-based label combined streetwear with luxury, using quotation marks, diagonal stripes and industrial motifs. It became one of the most sought-after brands in the world.
His 2017 collaboration with Nike, “The Ten”, reimagined ten classic sneakers and sold out quickly.
Louis Vuitton
In March 2018, Louis Vuitton appointed Abloh artistic director of its menswear, making him the first person of African descent to hold the role. His debut show in Paris that June, with a rainbow runway, drew a crowd of celebrities, and Kanye West embraced him at the end.
Ghana
Abloh spoke of his Ghanaian heritage and the influence of his parents. He supported young African creatives, set up a scholarship fund for Black students in fashion, and his work often addressed questions of race and access in the fashion world.
Illness and death
Abloh was diagnosed with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer, in 2019 and kept his illness private while continuing to work. He died on 28 November 2021, aged 41. Louis Vuitton held a tribute show in Miami days later.
Legacy
Abloh showed that streetwear belonged in luxury fashion and that designers could come from outside the traditional path. His “3 percent” approach, changing a design by a small amount to create something new, became a well-known idea in design circles.
He trained to build bridges and buildings. He ended up building a path into luxury fashion for people who had never been invited.
