On late Sunday, the world witnessed another shocking news! Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for men’s collection – Virgil Abloh, died at 41 after battling cancer for many years.
Abloh was the first black American to become a creative designer in the top French fashion and luxury house. It was him who brought sweatshirts, hoodies, and other streetwear to the ramp for the catwalk.
He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection from 2018 until his death in late 2021. Abloh was also the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2012.
Read here some of the interesting things about Virgil Abloh:
· Abloh was a trained architect. While studying architecture, he designed T-shirts and wrote on fashion and design for a well-known blog, The Brilliance.
· He entered the world of international fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009, alongside American rapper Kanye West.
· 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.
· During his work with the rapper and designer, Abloh caught the eye of the Louis Vuitton CEO, Michael Burke. There were 3,000 students at his first Louis Vuitton show at the Tuileries in 2018.
· In 2012, Abloh launched his first company, Pyrex Vision. Despite the huge success of Pyrex Vision, Abloh shut it down after only a year, claiming that it was ‘a side project’ and an artistic experiment.
· 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.
· 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.
· Some of Abloh’s best-known work was his shoes, particularly his collaboration with Nike.
· Abloh worked with Nike and also created a unique kit for tennis legend, Serena Williams.
Also read: Bold designer of men’s wear & style visionary US fashion designer Virgil Abloh dies at 41
· Abloh was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2018, one of two designers named that year.
· In 2019, Abloh was diagnosed with cardiac angiosarcoma, though he chose to keep the diagnosis private. He died in Chicago on November 28, 2021, at the age of 41.