The Genesis of Off-White and Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh, son of two Ghanaian immigrants, arrived in Chicago in 2002 after he graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It was during this time that he met Kanye West and started creating merchandise and album artwork for the rapper. At that time, they were two virtual unknowns and no one could have predicted that they were to become one of the most important creative partnerships in recent decades.
After doing an internship together at Fendi during the summer of 2009, Abloh’s first major public project with West was as the artistic director of Watch the Throne, West’s joint album with Jay-Z, which launched him into the social and commercial circles of hip-hop.
Abloh and his brand, Off-White, are without any doubt, the two main protagonists behind the fashion trends of the 2010s. The brand, born from the ashes of his first venture Pyrex Vision, has been able to break down the seemingly insurmountable boundaries between luxury and streetwear. Baggy and comfortable clothing, representative of his own culture. Off-White was the missing link between these two worlds, but also the emblem of an unexpected social phenomenon: hype.
We can’t talk about Off-White and Abloh without mentioning Been Trill, a musical collective founded by Virgil Abloh, Heron Preston, Matthew Williams, YWP, Florencia Galarza and Justin Saunders. Through their Tumblr page, the group created art and products that represented the youth culture of the mid-2010s through mixtapes, psychedelic videos and merchandise with their own logo superimposed.
The name itself had a very specific meaning: “been” refers simply to being up on something long before anyone else, while the word “trill” is the portmanteau of “true” and “real”, and owes its success to Southern rappers like Bun B who frequently used it.
When they started releasing t-shirts, long sleeves and caps, the movement started to be more than just a passing trend. The brand’s biggest mainstream moment was the announcement of a special collection for PacSun, making their gear truly available and affordable. It does not take much to imagine what an influence this experience had on Abloh for the creation of Off-White.
When the brand was born in 2013, Abloh was known as Kanye West’s right-hand man. Abloh’s aim was to become an easily recognisable brand, that stood apart from all others, as with Been Trill.
Truth be told, the logo was not particularly revolutionary. It’s the same graphic you see on crosswalks and street signs. This choice was odd because it wasn’t anything that hadn’t been seen before. The brand, therefore, was considered by some to be nothing beyond ordinary and overpriced for its lack of artistic merit.
Many say that Abloh is not the revolutionary he is made out to be. Allegations of plagiarism by Diet Prada, the Instagram account that exposes the shadows of the fashion world, pointed out that the Off-White logo was almost identical to a 1965 design at Glasgow airport created by a famous British design group.
Moreover, the same Diet Prada account found a photo of Abloh in his office with a copy of a book on modern design mentioning the logo in question, and they even accused him of copying Raf Simons by Calvin Klein and the Japanese label Anrealage.
In short, the main charge against Abloh is that he is a “hype instigator” rather than a creative talent.
In an article for Complex, Cameron Wolf attempted to explain the rise of the Off-White phenomenon:
“Even if the general population doesn’t recognise those diagonal stripes as Abloh’s, if his followers do, then he’s succeeded. Imagine hundreds of thousands of Off-White fans seeing diagonal lines all the time and automatically thinking of Abloh’s label. That’s extremely powerful because it can make the brand seem larger than it actually is.”
When you think about it, this was a brilliant marketing strategy: being everywhere and recognisable at first sight. There are large parts of our daily lives that now make us think of Off-White.
The extra peculiarity of putting all his designs in “quotes” has turned Off-White into the brand par excellence, it is like saying it is all “ironic” and not serious. As a result, Virgil Abloh has become in a short time, the main representative of a democratised fashion for the new generation.
Off-White, the hottest brand ever
Off-White’s success has also been made possible thanks to New Guards Group, an Italian holding company co-founded in Milan in 2015 by Claudio Antonioli, Davide De Giglio and Marcelo Burlon. At present, the group, which has been acquired by Farfetch for over 600 million, has Palm Angels, Heron Preston, Alanui, Ambush, Opening Ceremony, Kirin and Palm Angels in its portfolio, besides-Off-White, of course. In an interview for The Business Of Fashion, De Giglio explains how the holding company was born as a matter of course:
“Nowadays it is possible to look smart and cool with a nice pair of sneakers and a sweater instead of a suit. This is the new dress code, even for executives. I am an executive and I wear sneakers. New Guards Group is about new ways of doing things: a new way of acting, a new way of communicating, a new way of distributing.”
This, in turn, is what has created the vision for Off-White. Art as a service of streetwear is no longer a utopia, but rather two ecosystems that contaminate each other in a positive way.
With Off-White, the average age of the target market is much younger than traditional luxury fashion brands, demonstrating the importance of the brand’s streetwear-led ethos. Quickly established itself as “luxury streetwear” meant that fans weren’t put off paying high prices for Off-White apparel. With the “FOR ALL” collection Abloh has made his clothes available at much more affordable prices, a decision that has shown his willingness to make the luxury fashion world more inclusive.
A revolutionary partnership with Nike
Abloh’s peak of success, before being appointed as creative director for Louis Vuitton in 2018, was his collaboration with Nike in 2017. “The Ten” collaboration between Virgil Abloh and Nike was the biggest sneaker event of 2017 (and possibly of the last decade).
From late October to early November in 2017, the first releases were split into two packs of five. The “REVEALING” pack contained the Off-White™ Nike Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Presto, Air VaporMax and Blazer Mid. The “GHOSTING” included the Off-White™ Nike Air Max 97, React Hyperdunk, Air Force 1, Zoom Vaporfly, and Converse Chuck Taylor All Star.
The Jordan 1 Chicago x Off-White, which regularly sells for over £5,000 on StockX, are the sneakers where Abloh’s architectural soul and nostalgic culture were at their peak. According to the designer himself, Michael Jordan and the ‘90s were the points of reference for his creations.
The second part of this fruitful partnership, in 2020, focused on clothes, including hoodies and pants, besides the release of Jordan 4 and Jordan 5 “Sail” and “Black”. An interesting item is the loose white t-shirt, a total tribute to MJ in a child’s dream. Abloh’s ascent actually started from his adoration of the number 23 and it would not be out of place to see the featured child as the incarnation of Abloh.
Nike and Jordan have found in Abloh the perfect interpreter of an inclusive, timeless, and revolutionary fashion. To celebrate the 2018 FIFA World Cup, NikeLab and Off-White released a capsule collection which quickly turned into a collector’s must.
Titled “Mon Amour”, the capsule is a nod to Abloh’s passion for the football look.
“The great thing about the vocabulary and history of football is that aesthetically it has its own look”, says Abloh. “I have always been inspired by the fact that European football teams have a sponsor printed on the chest. When I was working on this collection, I wanted to celebrate the different types of typography”.
We can indeed find several interesting looks: the black and white checkerboard featured throughout the capsule makes reference to the Croatian outfit, while the lion with blue and orange dots is a reminder of the Netherlands’ emblem. Every number used represents a jersey that Abloh himself wore during his playing days. Here again, Abloh did not leave anything to chance, releasing a full wardrobe of clothes.
This partnership was just the beginning. There is the one with Rimowa, LVMH’s historic brand, in 2018. Even a travel suitcase has become a design object one must have to be in step with the times. Back then, the first signs of the fusion of streetwear and luxury were becoming more and more prominent. The legacy, quality, craftsmanship, and authenticity of luxury have merged with the contemporary nature of streetwear.
The brand’s driving force has always been Abloh’s passion for art and architecture. Proof of this is the collaboration with Braun to produce a line of clocks for the true lovers of home living to celebrate the centenary of the German brand.
And that’s not all: a remake of the iconic hi-fi audio wall unit “Wandalage”, created by Dieter Rams in 1965 and now transformed with a stylish metallic coating which combines the aesthetic of Braun’s shiny chrome and Abloh’s cultural references – such as Mamie Smith’s blues band and the typical customized shiny cars loved by the ’80s hip hops stars. Here again, Abloh’s multi-creative side comes to the surface.
With this, Abloh again set a template for the future, where nothing is left to chance. Off-White has taught us something very important: streetwear can be anything you can imagine it to be.
When in 2019 the IKEA x Off-White collection was revealed, Abloh renewed his effort to make his artwork accessible to everyone. We have worked on everything: rugs, receipts, wall clocks, toolboxes, pictures, beds, and chairs. If the mission was entering the home of ordinary people, the goal has been fully achieved. Basically, Virgil Abloh is the modern King Midas.
