A first generation Ghanaian-American, Virgil Abloh, has been named the next Artistic Director of one of the oldest and most powerful European houses in the luxury industry: Louis Vuitton men's fashion. Abloh, founder of the Off-White high-street brand and longtime art director of Kanye West, becomes Louis Vuitton's first African-American artistic director and one of the few black designers at the top of a French heritage house . According to a New York Times report, "I'm delighted," Abloh said by telephone on Sunday, adding that he plans to move his family to Paris to take up the position at LVMH Moët's largest brand. Hennessy Louis. Vuitton, the largest luxury group in the world. "This opportunity to think about what the next chapter of design and luxury will mean for a brand that represents the pinnacle of luxury has always been a goal in my wildest dreams, and to show a younger generation that it does not. There is no one way for someone in this kind of position to look at is a fantastic modern spirit in which to start. " Abloh, 37, a first-generation Ghanaian-American raised in Illinois, is widely regarded as one of the consummate purveyors of cool fashion; a master of the use of irony, reference and wink (plus celebrity, music, digital and hype), to recontextualize the familiar and give it an aura of cultural currency.
Despite having no formal fashion education (his mother was a seamstress and taught him her trade; he studied architecture and civil engineering), Mr. Abloh founded Off-White — a reference to his belief that old barriers are breaking down — in 2013, almost a decade after he first meet Mr. West and became his creative partner. In 2015, Off-White was a finalist for the LVMH Young Designers Prize. (Mr. Abloh will be the first LVMH finalist to take on a major design role in an LVMH brand.)
Off-White currently has 3.1 million Instagram followers (Mr. Abloh alone has 1.6 million), and Mr. Abloh received the Urban Luxe award at the British Fashion Awards last year. During the just-past women’s wear season, there was almost a riot in the Rue Cambon outside the Off-White show as fans crowded to get in.
A champion of the cross-branded collaboration, Mr. Abloh has worked with names as varied as Nike, Jimmy Choo, Moncler and, with an upcoming project, Ikea. Most recently, he teamed up with Takashi Murakami, a frequent Vuitton collaborator, for a show at the Gagosian Gallery in London.
“In a way, all of my output has been to make a compelling case for me to take on a role such as this,” Mr. Abloh said. “I think of it as kind of the ultimate collaboration.”
It also presumably made a compelling case that Mr. Abloh could be the man to make Louis Vuitton men’s wear more relevant — and more visible — to the millennial generation. He will build on the foundation laid by Mr. Jones, who also gave classic men’s wear and Vuitton’s history as a luggage expert an urban edge, and recently engineered a sellout collaboration with Supreme, another street-wear success story.
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