Artistic director at Vuitton whose own label, Off-White, challenged the fashion establishment
Virgil Abloh looms tall on the far end of a famous picture of Kanye West’s creative crew snapped in Paris during men’s fashion week in 2009. West had led them there despite a lack of invitations, very much wanting their exquisitely considered dapperness acknowledged by, and in, luxury fashion.
Marc Jacobs, then artistic director at Louis Vuitton, had just signed West to collaborate on a sneaker line, but he desired more. The picture shows the group to be sartorially worthy of inclusion and protests against their exclusion from the high fashion narrative; it poses questions about gatekeeping, about who gets top-level access and exposure. Abloh’s style is different from the other dandies, though; he looks more like an enthusiastic professor in red glasses, blue Moncler vest and yellow sneakers. “Streetwear” does not cover it – what Abloh is wearing ought to be described as lifewear or thoughtwear.
