Virgil Abloh Biography and Career Timeline
A Brief History of Virgil Abloh’s Meteoric Rise
Virgil Abloh died on November 28th, 2021 following a private battle against cardiac angiosarcoma which is a rare type of cancer. He was 41 years old. Off-White's founder and Men's Director of Art at Louis Vuitton were most recently seen in Doha, Qatar, at the opening of his show "Figures Of Speech."
"I am passionate about promoting the new generation of designers who are becoming superstars of rock," stated Virgil Abloh on his website The Brilliance in 2007. Fast forward a decade, and Abloh is precisely this. The American designer has made the leap from a Chicago teenager who was fascinated by fashion design, art, and culture, to become the creative head of Louis Vuitton's menswear division.
As Abloh gets ready to take over the reins of one of the most recognizable fashion brands, we're reflecting on his professional journey beginning with a Fendi employee to Kanye West collaborator, to Off-White founder and collaborators that are nonpareil.
1980: Abloh is born on the 30th of September, 1980, outside of Chicago. His sister and he were born in the nearby town of Rockford by Ghanaian immigrants parents. Abloh is a student at Boylan Catholic High School - the official colors are white and green. He graduated in 1998. His mom is a seamstress, and she shows him the techniques of the trade.
2002: Abloh completes his undergraduate degree in civil engineering at UW Madison. (In 2015, he'll come back to design commemorative t-shirts to commemorate the school.) There is a rumor that on his day of graduation Abloh skips his final exam for a conference with Kanye West's then-manager John Monopoly. West and Abloh begin working informally shortly following.
2005: Abloh earns his Master's in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. While at IIT there is a Rem Koolhaas building is completed that, Abloh declares, "piqued my interest and gave me a new perspective on the world of fashion."
2009. Abloh as well as West join the ranks of interns for Fendi at Rome. Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke recently stated to The New York Times, "I am extremely impressed by the way [Abloh and West have brought a completely new style to the studio and were disruptive in the best possible way. Virgil could come up with the metaphor of a new way of describing something as old-fashioned as Fendi. I've watched his life ever since the time."
The year 2009 is Abloh, as well as West, together with a group of celebrities, are seen during Paris Fashion Week, turning heads as they go. The two are captured by Tommy Ton for Style.com outside of the Comme des Garcons show, in the end, it's a well-known image. Abloh informs W magazine, "We were the generation who was fascinated by fashion but didn't have the right to be part of it. We considered this to be our opportunity to contribute and create an impact on our culture. In many ways, it was as if we had more enthusiasm than the industry."
2010. Abloh is officially appointed to the position of creative director for Donda West's agency for creative.
2011. Abloh is the art director of Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and West the achievement gets him the Grammy nomination. The album's cover was designed by Riccardo Tisci who was then the creative director at Givenchy the fashion house, a position Abloh was speculated to be pursuing following Tisci's departure in the year 2017.
2012. Abloh introduces his brand for the first time, Pyrex Vision. The brand is launched located in New York. He bought the deadstock Ralph Lauren flannel shirts for $40 each and then screen-printed them with the words Pyrex along with the 23rd number, in a tribute to his idol from his childhood, Michael Jordan. They retail for $550 per.
2013. Abloh shuts Pyrex and establishes Off-White an innovative multi-platform initiative with its headquarters in Milan. The primary medium of the brand is fashion. Off-White is where he blends concepts of streetwear, luxury music, art and travel. He defines the brand's essence as "the gray zone between white and black in the form of Off-White." Right from the beginning, the hovering quotation marks are Abloh's trademark.
2014. Abloh debuts womenswear collection for Off-White. The brand will debut its collection for women and men during Paris Fashion Week.
The 2015 season of Abloh's ladieswear business is gaining momentum when Beyonce wears a palm-print sweatshirt sporting" Nebraska on it. It's in a nod to Raf Simons's Fall 2002 Virginia Creepers collection, in Nicki Minaj's music video for "Feeling Myself." That same year, Off-White gets selected as a finalist for LVMH Prize. The grand prize is awarded to him and the special price for the special prize to Marques'Almeida and Jacquemus and Jacquemus, respectively.
The year is 2016 and Abloh is the first to open his concept shop in the Aoyama region of Tokyo. The store is equipped with a water cooler with Off-White-branded cups, which customers can take for free and then sell in the market second-hand.
Abloh introduces the Grey Area furniture collection in Milan this year, his first venture in furniture under Off-White's brand. It includes iron grid chairs, benches, and tables that have leather cushions as well as Carrara granite tops.
2017: Despite news of a collaborative exhibition featuring Takashi Murakami that will open at Gagosian and the debut of his first single; the launch to the New York store; the British Fashion Award for Urban Luxe Brand and cooperations together with Warby Parker Jacob the Jeweler, and Jimmy Choo, the biggest announcement to Abloh this year is The Ten, his sneaker collaboration with Nike. Abloh recreates Nike's most iconic silhouettes in an in-progress design, and each one is adorned with a security tag on the laces. The limited-edition will leave the sneaker industry eager for more and Abloh organizes workshops and panels in conjunction with Nike and new releases throughout the year.
2018. Abloh has been named Louis Vuitton's artistic director for its menswear collection and will take over the post that was left vacant by his mentor and friend Kim Jones. "It is a great honor to be appointed to this role. I believe that the history and the creative spirit of the house to be key sources of inspiration and I will try at them both as I draw parallels to modern time," he says in an official statement.
In the summer, he'll be performing this summer at Lollapalooza.
2019: The work of Virgil Alboh will be part of an exhibit in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago as well as the artist's Ikea collaboration with Ikea will also be made available through the international stores of the brand.