Abloh got his start in fashion with a T-shirt. In the early 2000s, his fledgling designs caught the attention of Kanye West’s creative team. Yo was so impressed that he invited Abloh to join his inner circle. Over the next decade Abloh completed internship at Fendi and was ready to go out on his own. With the launch of his Off-White label in Milan, Abloh challenged the elite fashion industry’s long standing exclusion of Black talent. He marketed Off-White prominently on social media, appealing to a younger, more diverse generation of consumers. Soon after launch of Off-White, Virgil became the first Afro-American designer at Louis Vuitton assuming the role of Men’s Artistic Director. During his tenure at Louis Vuitton he used his high profile standing to forge a more inclusive vision for luxury fashion.
The Brooklyn museum’s exhibit is full of works from Abloh’s high school assignments and sketchbooks, his signature clothing collections, videos of his iconic fashion shows, furniture and graphic design works. An important part of the exhibit is a “SOCIAL SCULPTURE”, a giant wooden structure that Virgil Abloh created in collaboration with ALASKA ALASKA (Abloh’s creative studio). This installation is his design studio, a space for gathering and performances for the community to come together and exchange ideas. The work is designed with the promise and principles of what the artist David Hammons once termed “negritude architecture”, which he defined as “the way Black people make things, houses or magazine stands in Harlem, for instance. Nothing fits, but everything works. The door closes, it keeps thing from coming through. But it doesn’t have the neatness about it.“
Abloh considered the “SOCIAL SCULPTURE”, a representation of Black space, a living monument that holds the potential, through the exchange of ideas to inspire the creation of more Black spaces. “SOCIAL SCULPTURE” is an artwork and the highlight of the exhibit. The Brooklyn Museum is making the “SOCIAL SCULPTURE” available to community to use upon the request.
Abloh performed multiple Dj sets at venues and festivals around the world. He worked for Yo’s creative company DONDA. There, he oversaw the creation of concert merchandise, album packaging, and stage designs for West and for other musicians. There are multiple sound mixers, digital music players and album press plates displayed, one can see and feel the connection across music and design throughout the entire exhibit.
For shopping lovers, the museum offering quite a big selection of merchandise created by Virgil Abloh to purchase, such as wide selection of hoodies, t-shirts, some of the pricier “one of a kind” Virgil’s dresses, Off-White bags and other clothing items, such as books, notebooks and famous Del Monico Books’ Figure of Speech edition created for Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
On November 28th, 2021, Abloh died of a rare form of cancer while working on this exhibition. He was forty-one years old. To complete the plans for exhibit, ALASKA ALASKA (London) in tandem with Mahfouz Sultan, collaborated with the museum to ensure that the artist’s vision was fulfilled.
A conscientious mentor and prolific Dj, Abloh believed knowledge should be shared freely, loosing such very special person shocked the industry. The sadness of his passing away is deep in echoes till today. We lost a legend that represents the generation.