The designer was known for his rap music, his association with the label Off-White, and his collaborations with big brands like Nike and IKEA.
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Fashion designer Virgil Abloh has passed away at the age of 41 after a battle with cancer.
The designer, who founded his label Off-White in 2013, made history as the first Black artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear division.
His death was announced on Sunday by Off-White and luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
According to a statement posted by Abloh’s family on the designer’s Instagram account, two years ago Abloh was diagnosed with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that causes tumors to form in the heart.
“Since his diagnosis in 2019, he has undergone a number of challenging treatments and chosen to manage his illness privately, whilst leading several important institutions across fashion, art and culture,” the statement read.
Abloh is survived by his wife, Shannon Abloh, and his sons, Rowe and Gray.
A groundbreaking and wide-ranging career
A first-generation Ghanaian-American with no formal fashion education — his mother taught him to sew, he earned an engineering degree and a master’s in architecture — Abloh began his career in fashion in partnership with Kanye West, now known as Ye.
Abloh met Ye in 2009 while working at a screen-printing shop. After the two interned together at LVMH-owned Fendi, Abloh became Ye’s creative director. In 2011, he served as art director for Ye and Jay-Z’s “Watch the Throne,” an album for which he was nominated for a Grammy.
Abloh was a celebrated trendsetter with an extensive career, known for fusing high and low fashion and mixing streetwear with gouture.
He’s worked on a cult sneaker line in partnership with Off-White and Nike, designed furniture for Ikea, and created refillable Evian bottles and McDonald’s Big Mac cartons.
Named one of TIME magazine’s most influential people in 2018, Abloh’s work has been exhibited at the Louvre, Gagosian Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Stars such as Beyoncé, Michael B. Jordan, Kim Kardashian West, Timothée Chalamet and Serena Williams have all been dressed by Mr. Abloh, who at the time of his death was one of the most influential Black executives in the historically closed world of fashion.
“I now have the platform to change the industry,” Abloh told GQ magazine in 2018.
“As designers, we have the ability to start a trend, highlight an issue, get people to pay attention to something, or even to us.
“I’m not interested in[the latter]. I’m interested in using my position as one of a very small number of African-American men to design homes and show them to people in a sort of poetic way.”
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The world reacts
Stars across the fashion, music and entertainment industries who knew or worked with Abloh were quick to express their sadness at the tragic news.
Actor Riz Ahmed said on Twitter that Abloh “expanded culture and changed the game.” Fashion designer Jeff Staple wrote, “You taught us all how to dream.” Pharrell Williams called Abloh a “kind, generous, thoughtful creative genius.”
Supermodel Gigi Hadid wrote, “My heart is broken over the loss of my dear friend and friend to the world, Virgil Abloh. He was one of a kind. V, you continue to inspire me every day. I feel blessed and honored every moment.”
Meanwhile, Edward Enningful, the first black editor of British Vogue, said: “Virgil Abloh changed the fashion industry. Famously prolific, he has always worked for a purpose bigger than his own illustrious career: opening the doors to art and fashion for future generations, so that they can grow up in a creative world where people, unlike him, see them as reflections.”
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