The fashion world has lost a pioneer, Virgil Abloh
"Virgil was not just a genius designer and a visionary.He was also a man with a beautiful soul and a great wisdom.”Bernard Arnault is one of the many personalities to have paid tribute to Virgil Abloh on Sunday.The 41 -year -old American was appointed in 2018 artistic director of men's collections at Louis Vuitton, one of the flagships of the luxury group LVMH.
The Instagram account ofM.Abloh confirmed his death during the day."For more than two years, Virgil courageously faced an aggressive form of cancer," said the message, adding that he had chosen to remain silent on this fight "while remaining at the head of important projects in fashion,art and culture ”.
"For him, clothes were identity totems," comments the New York Times in a long article devoted to this African-American creator, the first black man in charge of collections at Louis Vuitton.He "broke barriers" and his "ascent to the summits of the traditional luxury industry changed the vision of what was possible in fashion".
Training engineer
His first show for Louis Vuitton, in June 2018, “was not just the moment when streetwear entered the corridors of luxury brands but also the first time that a black man took over the reinsof a major luxury brand, ”insists Buzz Feed.
Chicago Tribune logically lingers on the fate of an Illinois child, born of immigrant parents from Ghana, training engineer and endowed with a master's degree in architecture.M.Abloh collaborated with another local figure, Kanye West, becoming in 2011 the creation director of Donda, the agency founded by the rapper.
"The city of Chicago is in mourning after the loss of a legend […] which opened doors for black designers in very high-end fashion," we can read on the official Twitter account of the Windy City.This is explained by the message published on his Instagram account."He often said" everything I do looks like the version of what I was at 17, believing deeply in the power of art to inspire future generations ", says the text.
One of the 100 most influential people
Child, he liked to make paper planes, before going to graffiti in adolescence. Ce fils de couturière, qui n’a pas suivi de formation spécifique à la mode dans sa jeunesse, a vu son “influence s’étendre souvent à d’autres domaines”, note CNN, citant son travail pour Ikea en 2017 ou sa collaboration avecMercedes-Benz.“The prolific fashion designer”, as NBC News describes, has even been DJ, performing at the Lollapalooza festival or in the first part of rapper Travis Scott.
Classé parmi les 100 personnes les plus influentes du monde par TimeMagazine en 2018, au centre d’une exposition du musée d’Art contemporain de Chicago l’année suivante, Virgil Abloh a habillé Serena Williams pour l’US Open 2018, Spike Lee pour le Festival de Cannes 2021 ou la jeune poétesse Amanda Gorman pour une couverture du magazine Vogue.
Its Off-White brand, launched in 2013, “managed to connect admirers of old fashion houses and a generation living on social networks”, analyzes the Washington Post.Last summer, LVMH acquired the majority of Off-White shares. Dans le même temps, le géant français avait annoncé que le rôle deM.Abloh was going to expand to other sectors of the group, such as wines and spirits, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
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