On late Sunday, the world witnessed anothershocking news! Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for men’s collection – VirgilAbloh, died at 41 after battling cancer for many years.
Abloh was the first black American to becomea creative designer in the top French fashion and luxury house. It was him whobrought sweatshirts, hoodies, and other streetwear to the ramp for thecatwalk.
He was the artistic director of LouisVuitton's menswear collection from 2018 until his death in late 2021. Abloh wasalso the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White,a fashion house he founded in 2012.
Read here some of the interesting thingsabout Virgil Abloh:
· Ablohwas a trained architect. While studying architecture, he designed T-shirts andwrote on fashion and design for a well-known blog, The Brilliance.
· Heentered the world of international fashion with an internship at Fendi in2009, alongside American rapper Kanye West.
· Ablohfounded his first fashion house and second business overall in 2013 with thehigh-end streetwear brand Off-White, designing a logo inspiredby Ben Kelly.
· Duringhis work with the rapper and designer, Abloh caught the eye of the LouisVuitton CEO, Michael Burke. There were 3,000 students at his firstLouis Vuitton show at the Tuileries in 2018.
· In2012, Abloh launched his first company, Pyrex Vision. Despite the huge successof Pyrex Vision, Abloh shut it down after only a year, claiming that it was ‘aside project’ and an artistic experiment.
· Virgilalso partnered up with the Swedish furniture company IKEA to designfurniture for apartments and houses as well as easy to carry tote bags with theword sculpture imprinted in the middle. The collection was named Markerad.
· In2019, Abloh was appointed to the board of directors of The Council ofFashion Designers of America. The council seeks to promote the American fashionindustry.
· Someof Abloh’s best-known work was his shoes, particularly his collaboration withNike.
· Ablohworked with Nike and also created a unique kit for tennis legend, SerenaWilliams.
· Ablohwas listed as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential peoplein the world in 2018, one of two designers named that year.
· In2019, Abloh was diagnosed with cardiac angiosarcoma, though he chose tokeep the diagnosis private. He died in Chicago on November 28, 2021, at the ageof 41.