Virgil Abloh: A Plural, Boundless Creator

In 2015, Virgil Abloh was a finalist for the LVMH Prize awarded to young fashion designers. Barely three years later, he succeeded the Englishman Kim Jones at the head of the men's collections of the giant Louis Vuitton. A dazzling and exemplary journey for an exceptional creative in his multidisciplinarity as in his way of working.

This journey sheds light on the uniqueness of his contribution to the world of fashion. Born in 1980, this child from Chicago grew up in an ultra-urban universe, passionate about skateboarding, graffiti, and inspired by the tutelary figure of Michael Jordan, he forged an aesthetic nourished by the codes of street culture. Collaborator then close friend of rapper Kanye West, he evolved for a time like a satellite around the world of fashion before taking part in it, creating Off-White, his own label in 2013 (bought 60% by LVMH in July 2021 ).

Counter-programming

If today, none of this seems out of place with luxury, it was quite different in 2018, when he was appointed to Louis Vuitton. This counter-programming sounded like a bet as much as a media stunt for its CEO Michael Burke and LVMH. The detractors of the favorite American designer of the cool kids had then underlined his lack of experience in a large fashion house, his iconoclastic training (studies in civil engineering then architecture), and a total ignorance of classic men's clothing.

With a first fashion show called “We are the world” to which fashion students and Louis Vuitton employees were invited, Virgil Abloh had laid the foundations of what was to be both his way of doing and say. A fashion traversed by eras and styles, generous, ample, as referenced as it is pragmatic. But also a sincere spirit devoid of irony, a humanity that assumes its optimism and a sober but uncompromising militancy. The models in this first fashion show reflected the world and its plurality. Before all the others, Virgil Abloh imposed the principle of diversity in luxury. He was the first African-American man to hold such a high office in a house of this size and intended to do something about it.

Playing with fashion

With quiet strength, often a touch of humour, he broke down a number of old patterns. Despite his prestigious functions and the responsibilities incumbent on him, he never gave up his activity as a DJ, traveling the world for sought-after performances. Chicago, Paris, Milan, Tokyo… it doesn't matter, he communicated with his teams and journalists on WhatsApp, posted on his Instagram account (6.9 million subscribers) the stages of his creative projects, breaking with the sacrosanct mystery luxury and occasionally reminding us that fashion should remain a game. In a video posted last September, we see artist Charlie Doves tagging the Louis Vuitton tuxedo that the stylist will wear to the last Met Ball. So many bridges thrown towards these millennials that the whole sector covets.

At the head of his little factory, Virgil Abloh had the principle of not giving up anything, as long as he could express himself. Fluidity, another concept of the time, was his modus operandi. There were no borders between his different activities, and social networks can testify to this today since he documented everything.

His democratic collaborations with Ikea and Evian have helped open the chakras of luxury and break down barriers, both for brands and for customers. Like a Karl Lagerfeld who, before him, had opened the field. Passionate about architecture, he loved the Japanese metabolist movement but also and above all the modernists for whom he cultivated a healthy obsession. Thus he had an original concrete lamp signed Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Chandigarh model, his most precious object... and source of inspiration for a collection of 20 pieces of concrete furniture presented in 2020 at the Kreo Gallery.

The list of Virgil Abloh's activities, talents and collaborations resembles a formal novel by Georges Perec, a sentence without a point where the singularity of a young artist and the vibrations of the time converge. It abruptly ends today. For the moment, there remains the melancholy, that of seeing such a prolific creative person leave so quickly, a father whose children ran between models and journalists, a friend who had let himself go with his emotion in the arms of Kanye West, the day of his first fashion show.