Who is Virgil Abloh?
Virgil Abloh now has his own brand ‘OFF WHITE’, and is the creative director at LOUIS VUITTON. He has also been involved in various collaborations with Nike and been the DJ at several major events. But how did he start his career in the fashion business?
After having worked at a firm of architects for two years, Abloh switched focus to fashion and in 2009 he established and opened RSVP Gallery, which is an art gallery and clothes store located in Chicago. In the same year, he started as a creative director reporting directly to Kanye West in his agency DONDA, which was responsible for live shows and merchandising projects. In 2012, Virgil Abloh established his own brand PYREX VISION, which printed logos on Champion styles and on Polo Ralph Lauren rugby shirts.
In addition, he collaborated with two of the biggest names in the industry today – Matthew Williams and Heron Preston, in a collective they called BEEN TRILL. PYREX closed down in 2013 and in the same year, Abloh started the luxury brand OFF WHITE. The brand has become very popular among major stars like Jay-Z, ASAP ROCKY, Rihanna and Beyonce, and it is sold in major stores such as Barneys and Collette.
At the beginning of 2018, Abloh joined Louis Vuitton as their creative director. This culminated in one of the most talked-about shows in Paris in 2019, where all of the major hip-hop artists sat in the front row.
He started from nothing with just a lot of great ideas and today he is one of the most influential figures in the industry.
