Fashion icons through history: Virgil Abloh, the artist who created trends and broke barriers

Born in the 1980s on the outskirts of Chicago, Virgil Abloh was deeply influenced by the aesthetics of skate and urban, which he would later apply to his collections and his Off-White brand. His career didn’t start in the fashion world, he studied Civil Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, a discipline that helped him learn notions of design and become interested in fashion. It was during the race when he started making his own designs and his success was not long in coming. While studying a master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology Met Kanye Westwho would be his future partner and one of the most important people in Abloh’s universe, worked closely, with Virgil Abloh handling creative aspects such as designing the image for the singer’s sixth album, yeezus.

He experimented with streetwear, music and haute couture. Organically and guided by his talent, he created his first Pyrex Vision brand in 2012, the result of his passion for art, which led him to create Off-White in 2013. With this successful brand, he collaborated with Nike for the collection in 2017 Nike x off-white: the ten. This was a very important moment for the designer as Michael Jordan was one of his childhood idols and designed his own Air Jordans.

His career within the LVMH group started in 2018, after being a finalist for the LVMH awards, the company saw the great potential of the artist and signed him as creative director of the menswear line at Louis Vuitton.

I create trends and break through barriers within fashion. He was intuitive and pragmatic, but also passionate and visionary. With his work, he innovated deeply in fashion and aesthetics, creating concepts and designs that went beyond conventional molds and approached art. He used these creations to express himself and fight racism, while opening new doors to the black community, making the defense of inclusion a part of his philosophy as an artist.

He was the first African American person to lead Louis Vuitton’s menswear division in 150 years. He came in and rejuvenated the brand, also making it more inclusive with measures such as an LVMH diversity panel, where he advocated for greater diversity within the company, as well as creating collections that emphasized black culture and social justice.

Another milestone in his career was taking clothes from the street to haute couture and experimenting with the athletics and creating a new concept of luxury. The street was his inspiration, both aesthetically and ethically, hence his collections, where sportswear and sneakers became exclusive objects wanted by the elite and sold out within minutes.

He wanted to be an example for young people, for new generations of artists and designers, he wanted to be an inspiration and he succeeded. After his death in 2021 from a strange and aggressive cancer, his name has remained very much alive and his way of looking will continue to inspire him for a long time to come.