Virgil Abloh is the creative director of Kanye West. He is an American DJ, music producer, and fashion designer as well. He is the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear collection and is the first black man in history to start a menswear collection. Virgil Abloh is the founder of a luxury fashion label Off-White.
Biography
Virgil Abloh was born on 30th September 1980. He was born and brought up in Rockford, Illinois, USA. His family consists of immigrants from Ghana and later on, he moved on to Chicago, Illinois where he was raised. He started designing merchandise at a very young age and included it in his day-to-day work. He did his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since his first degree was based on structural engineering hence it felt quite boring to him and this made him change his path. He did his Master’s in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of technology and completed it by 2006. He was fond of writing blogs and thus created the blog known as “The Brilliance” which was basically on fashion and design.
Virgil Abloh and Kanye West
2009 was a great year for Virgil as he founded the RSVP Gallery which is an art gallery and menswear boutique based out of Chicago. This is the same year when he met Kanye West and started collaboration activities. He met with Kanye West on the campus of Fendi, Italy where he was doing his internship. Virgil was named as the creative director of Kanye West’s creative agency, the consecutive year in 2010. The name of Kanye West’s creative agency was known as Donda. He was the creative director of Kanye West and Jay-Z‘s album Watch the Throne in 2011.
In the same year, Virgil was nominated for Grammy’s Album Packaging Award along with Riccardo Tisci for their work and activities with Kanye West. In 2012, Virgil started a street-wear brand named Pyrex Vision in New York. The initial garments were deadstock Ralph Lauren flannel shirts that he purchased for $40 per shirt. Thereafter, he screen-printed the shirts with the number 23 along with the word” Pyrex,”. The number 23 was an homage to Michael Jordan, an American former professional basketball player. He then went on to sell the shirts at $550 per piece.
Virgil Abloh And Off-White Brand
In 2013 he started the Off-White brand and his previous brand Pyrex was decommissioned in the same year. Off-white then went on to collaborate with famous designers and fashion brands like Le Bon Marché, Boys Noize, Byredo, ASAP Rocky, Heron Preston, Takashi Murakami, Timberland, Nike, Umbro, Levi, Barneys New York, Jimmy Choo, Dr. Martens, IKEA, Converse, Moncler, Évian, Browns, Champion, Warby Parker, Sunglass Hut, and SSENSE.
Off-White’s clothing uses stylized items like yellow industrial buckle belt design, zip ties, four-way arrows which create a cross, and quotation marks. The products are carried by stores, including – Le Bon Marché, Harrods, Selfridges, and Barneys. It also has more than 45 independent stores. The first Off-White women’s wear line debuted at Paris Fashion Week 2014. In 2015, his company was among the finalists of the LVMH Prize. In the follow-up year, Virgil opened his first concept store in the Aoyama area of Tokyo. Abloh won the International Design Designer at the GQ Men of the year awards 2017.
Collaboration With Nike
The big brand Nike and Virgil started to work together in 2017. The first collaboration was on the Air Jordan 1. Since then, Nike and Abloh have released more than 33 shoes together, such as Air Vapour Max, Zoom Fly, Air Max 97, and Air Force 1.Virgil was named as the Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton in 2018 and it was a great achievement for him as well as his community. In 2019, Virgil had his first show for Louis Vuitton in the Palais Royal gardens in Paris. Musician such as Kid Cudi and Kanye West were in attendance. In the same year, British-based Portuguese billionaire businessman José Neves acquired New Guards Group, the parent organization of Off-White, for $675 million. Virgil was nominated for Menswear Designer of the Year. He founded the Virgil Abloh “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund in 2020.
Virgil Abloh Wife and Relationships
Virgil Abloh married Shannon Sundberg in 2009. He and his wife met in high school and thereafter came closer. They now have two children Lowe and Grey as well.
Virgil Abloh Net Worth
Virgil’s majority of his net worth came from his Off white brand and later on when he decided to rent out the trademark of his brand to Jose Neves who acquired the parent company of Off White which is New Guards Group. He made $ 675 million on the deal however he still owns the intellectual property. His net worth is currently $25 million.
