By Florence Mafomemeh
News of Virgil Abloh’s sudden, premature death sent shock waves through the fashion and music worlds, and the black community. No one saw it coming. Privately, he had been battling cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer in which a tumor attacks the heart. Diagnosed in 2019, Abloh died on November 28, 2021 in Chicago at just 41.
Remembered as a powerful force in the fashion industry, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton men’s wear and founder of his own brand, Off-White broke barriers for black designers and influenced a generation of creators. In 2018, he became the first Black artistic director of men’s wear at Louis Vuitton in the French design house’s storied history.
A first-generation Ghanaian American who had no formal fashion training but had a degree in engineering and a master’s in architecture, his seamstress mother taught him how to sew. Abloh’s ascent to the heights of the traditional luxury industry changed what was possible in fashion.
Promoted just last July to a new position within LVMH that would allow him to work across the group’s 75 brands, it made him the most powerful Black executive in the most powerful luxury group in the world. The company praised him in a statement. “Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom,” Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said in a statement.
His creations were not just about clothes. They were about art and culture. The barrier-breaking Black designer was also out to inspire tomorrow’s designers as his wife quoted him as saying in an Instagram post. “Everything I do is for the 17-year-old version of myself,” she said. He believed deeply “in the power of art to inspire future generations,” she wrote.
Dubbed a disrupter who came in and changed the way the industry looked at fashion, Abloh collaborated with Kanye West (Ye), Rihanna and ASAP Rocky on various projects, and became creative director of Donda, Ye’s creative incubator, helping turn Ye’s ideas into actuality.
Born in Rockford, Ill. to Ghanaian immigrants, Nee and Eunice Abloh, Abloh opened a major exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago titled “Figures of Speech.” The next year, after the social justice protests of 2020, he established the Virgil Abloh “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund, raising $1 million to encourage Black students in fashion.
The fund will be managed in partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF), the foremost fashion-oriented education and workforce development nonprofit in the U.S. The Abloh Fund’s mission is to foster equity and inclusion within the fashion industry by providing scholarships to students of academic promise of Black, African-American, or of African descent. More than 100 students have benefitted from the fund. In addition to funding, the Post-Modern Scholarship, Abloh provided additional support to make its mission happen in the form of mentorship, information and support services. Virgil’s Brand Partners have signed on to support the larger cause of supporting the black community
The entrepreneur who also moonlighted as a DJ and a furniture designer also supported black women. Abloh joined forces with Trinice McNally for “I Support Black Women” Campaign. In late January, they connected on Zoom to discuss how fashion can engage more productively with the movement for racial justice, the power of storytelling, and the vital importance of passing the mic. Their discussion in BAZAAR here.
Abloh also stated the importance of the “I Support Black Women” Campaign on one of the discussions on his YouTube channel. “The “I Support Black Women” campaign aims to amplify and capture Black Women leaders of all identities (Transgender, Immigrant, Disabled, Fat, Queer, Working-Class) to share their work and why they have dedicated their lives to social change. The campaign also supports a fundraiser to open a physical location for the @schoolforblackfeministpolitics, a Black feminist political education initiative and hub,” He said.
Aside from doing mentoring calls with young people, the path-blazing designer was also part of the Converse All Star Series where they talk about mentorship through creativity and standing up with the next generation of game changers. Converse All Star Series is an ongoing experience for a global community of All Stars to develop their voice and talents together. He also created a pioneering resource center for young talent. Learn more about it here.
Abloh shared his knowledge with the future generation of creatives in an official capacity when he taught classes at London’s Architectural Association School and through mentoring programs, but, according to his friends and collaborators, he selflessly gave advice to anyone who happened to cross paths with him. “What is very important about Virgil’s work is that the whole time he’s doing it – whether you’re a young budding designer, musician, or architect – he is ‘giving you the cheat codes,’ as he likes to say,” said Benji B, whom Abloh appointed Louis Vuitton’s Music Director, in a 2019 interview with GQ.
As a fashion designer, Abloh broke all the rules and changed the luxury fashion game. His contributions to fashion and design through his creations will never be forgotten, but it’s his legacy – to inspire every 17-year-old to dare to dream, to never wonder whether they are in the wrong place – that will live on. He and his work appear in Vogue in Introducing Good Morning Vogue, a new fashion news show exploring the changing industry Here.
Making history by becoming Louis Vuitton’s first Black artistic director to do so in its 167-year history, Abloh alluded to it during his first Louis Vuitton show, held in the gardens of the Palais Royale in front of an audience that included Kanye West, Rihanna and ASAP Rocky, as well as 1,500 students. He identified the most important legacy that he is leaving behind.
“There are people around this room who look like me,” he said to The New York Times. “You never saw that before in fashion. The people have changed, and so fashion had to.”
Abloh, who is survived by his wife Shannon Abloh, his children Lowe Abloh and Grey Abloh, his sister Edwina Abloh and his parents, Nee and Eunice Abloh, will be terribly missed. In his short life here, he left behind so much. He is an inspiration for young black people whom he showed that they can break through to wherever they want.
