Virgil Abloh - The Legend
Photo: Timothy Suen
This Sunday evening was nothing out of the ordinary until the world was left shook with the unexpected news of Virgil Abloh - a man of many talents and a true jack of all trades, had passed away due to cardiac angiosarcoma.
Unfortunately, throughout the last few years, we’ve lost too many talents for various different reasons, but for me personally, Virgil’s passing was definitely the hardest one to swallow and I still can’t believe we’ve lost a real icon who simply can’t be replaced.
One of the reasons this event has been so impactful is due to the fact I discovered Virgil’s work somewhere between 2012 and 2013. This was an era when I started to pivot from typical skatewear to a more streetwear-oriented style, and finding Been Trill during its “blossoming” was one of the gateways to where I’m now with my personal interests and endeavors - safe to say I’m not the only one feeling this way and many of his followers, colleagues, family and friends can relate to this. If it wasn’t for Virgil, I can’t say what the fashion industry would look like, feel like and be like without his impact. He truly made a change to what fashion is and what it will mold into in upcoming years.
It’s impossible to go through and cover all of his work and creations throughout his more than a decade-lasting career, but a general yet cohesive roadmap of his work is a great way to recap his path and to indicate how big of a player he was on the field.
Photo: Angela Weiss
During the early-2000’s, Virgil was studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He majored in Civil Engineering, graduating with a B.Sc. in the said field - four years later, he received his M.Sc. in Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology. During his studies, he developed an interest in fashion & design and started printing his own graphics on t-shirts while giving his two cents of the fashion industry to a well-known blog, The Brilliance. During this time, he made friends with Kanye West, which sparked not only Virgil but Kanye as well to chase their dreams in the fashion industry.
In 2009, both Virgil and Kanye interned at fashion house Fendi - this was also the time when the two became really close to each other. Kanye’s one of the most infamous rants on Zane Lowe’s interview was regarding this era, when Fendi didn’t appreciate their idea of leather jogging pants which became quite popular a few years after - this being said, their endeavors didn’t really generate any interest at Fendi, yet Virgil’s work at Fendi had been discovered by Louis Vuitton’s CEO Michael Burke, which filled the continuum in latter years.
Can you recognize everyone in the photo? Hint: Virgil’s on the right
After the shenanigans at Fendi, Virgil partnered up with another Chicago-based OG called Don C to open a retail space called RSVP Gallery in their homefront Chicago which caters to the most coveted brands of the streetwear scene. RSVP Gallery isn’t just a typical retailer for coveted goods, it has also become a staple of the streetwear scene by being an early adopter to many of the brands which started from the grass-root level to become the most distinguishable logos and designs in the higher end field, e.g. Cav Empt & Fear Of God.
Virgil playing decks at RSVP Gallery. Photo: Anthony Trevino, Orel Chollette
Albeit his successful brick-and-mortar, he kept his schedule active by becoming the Creative Director of Kanye’s creative agency DONDA. One of the pivotal points for him to become massively known for his designs, was when he collaborated with former Creative Director of Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci, to design cover art for Watch The Throne album. The album being a huge success throughout the world, led Virgil to stay on his design spree and completed the frenzy by launching his own clothing brand, Pyrex Vision.
Pyrex Vision (commonly referred to as Pyrex) hasn’t aged that well, but during its peak, it was the biggest name in the streetwear scene. The business model for the brand was simple; buy some Ralph Lauren Flannels and Champion shorts in relatively big quantities, print your own graphics and texts on them and add your own gross margin to it. This is quite a popular way nowadays to springboard your own clothing brand up and running, but in 2012 it wasn’t that common and it spelled outrage due to the hefty price tags Virgil was charging his designs for. Paying 300 dollars for a pair of sports bottoms wasn’t popular during this era (still isn’t IMO but to each to their own), but it soon cultivated the streetwear scene to clash with haute couture.
Pyrex didn’t last for too long since he had too much stuff cooking in the boiler, which led him to shut down the operations of Pyrex a year later after its initial launch, but safe to say this wasn’t the end for Virgil - barely just the start.
Pyrex 2013 campaign lookbook photo
In 2013, a supergroup called Been Trill was formed. Just to name a few big bosses from the group, there was Heron Preston, Matthew Williams, and Justin Saunders along with Virgil Abloh. The group started to produce their own DJ mixes and distributed them on various streaming outlets, e.g. Live Mixtapes. Been Trill soon became widely known amongst the local and not-so-local DJ scene due to their simple yet recognisable designs (Been Trill logo styled with Rocky AOE font) and a great selection of music on their sets. As a side note, this was when I discovered Been Trill and started to pay more attention to Virgil himself.
It didn’t take too much time for them to start producing merchandise around Been Trill. Due to their insane network of artists and influencers, it was easy to do some guerilla marketing by supplying their friends with Been Trill merch. Some of the well-known “brand ambassadors” for Been Trill were artists such as Kanye West and Travis Scott.
Travis Scott wearing Been Trill x Travis Scott shirt, released exclusively at RSVP Gallery
Been Trill became one of the hottest streetwear brands in 2013 which eventually sparked some decent collaborations with other brands, the biggest ones being with A.P.C, Hood By Air, 40 Oz. NYC and Diamond Supply.
Sadly, Been Trill falls pretty much into the same category as Pyrex, but not due to the same reason though. Whenever there’s a demand, the supply has to meet it accordingly. Been Trill kept on producing apparel through their mainline, but via collaborations as well, which made the consumer lose the genuine interest since, broadly speaking, there was something new coming out every week and amongst streetwear enthusiasts, the brand not being so exclusive anymore, it eventually fell under the radar.
A.P.C. x Been Trill collaboration shirt, the one that started the whole collab craze
After Been Trill was somewhat over from Virgil’s end, he then went off and launched Off-White, which basically started a new chapter in Virgil’s life.
The brand gained popular interest in 2014 due to its high-quality goods and appealing designs, which paid homage to Pyrex Vision. It was like a grown-up version of Pyrex with well-sourced materials with a refreshed look. It had similar graphic prints to its predecessor, including Caravaggio paintings on the front and uppercase letters of Off-White plastered in the backside. I managed to buy one of the first designs from the first original drop but ended up selling it a couple of years after. Still gutted about it.
Also, Off-White was nominated as one of the finalists of the LVMH Prize but ended up losing to Marques’Almeida and Jacquemus.
Virgil showcasing Off-White’s women collection on Paris Fashion Week 2018. Photo: FashionStock
Virgil had his hands tied to Off-White for many consecutive years since it has reached a huge demand not only in the streetwear field but in the high-end field as well. As I mentioned earlier in the article, Pyrex was one of the bridges to connect streetwear with haute couture, but Off-White was the new black that became an industry standard between affordable streetwear culture and more expensive high-end culture.
In 2017, Virgil collaborated with Nike for a collection capsule called “The TEN”, where he had made his own iterations of some of the most iconic silhouettes of Nike sneakers. The collection sold out pretty much instantly and some of the pieces from the release fetched more than 20x the original price tag on the aftermarket - another day at Virgil’s office.
The TEN collection (excl. the Converse model)
He kept on releasing new designs for Nike on a regular basis, but in 2018 his biggest achievements became unlocked - IKEA & Louis Vuitton.
No one saw it coming when the collaboration with Ikea & Virgil Abloh was officially released. Some even thought it was a blatant joke, but then again, the fashion world had shape-shifted to something else especially since Demna Gvasalia had made his way to the fashion world with VETEMENTS and becoming the Creative Director to Balenciaga - once again, a topic that needs its own separate post.
So, the collaboration happened and it was a success. Titled as ‘MARKERAD’, it was released internationally in 2019, even here in Finland. Contrary to common belief, products from this collaboration were quite affordable. Virgil even said that this collection was made to meet the needs of students.
Look book photo of the MARKERAD collection. Photo: IKEA
Virgil was definitely the one who allowed streetwear to connect with the fashion world. If someone’s still second-guessing this, it’s good to rewind back to March 2018, when Virgil was nominated as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton. Anyone can have their own personal thoughts and feelings towards Louis Vuitton and Virgil himself, but it can’t be ignored that this partnership made a huge impact on the high-end fashion world by introducing a completely new demographic to the field - and vice versa. At the same time it was a huge surprise, but then again, considering the footprint Virgil had left on the scene with his earlier work, it wasn’t. Louis Vuitton had already collaborated with streetwear conglomerate Supreme a year before and before Virgil, Kim Jones was the Creative Director of Louis Vuitton so the signs of the paradigm shift were already there.
Louis Vuitton Skyscraper jacket, designed by the one and only Virgil Abloh. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain
Anyway, this really rocked the fashion world with positive and negative reception. However, Virgil’s debut collection on Palais-Royal garden during Men’s Fashion Week in 2018 was a success. During the same year, Virgil collaborated with Italian-based luggage company RIMOWA for a special collection of transparent strollers. Ever since the “CD for LV '' nomination he had been an overall mega jefe, turning anything he touches to gold. Although he’s mainly known for his work on fashion and music, he’s also really into art and design. Virgil launched a London-based studio called ALASKA/ALASKA to support the actual art & design field with sustainable creations of his own and his team - one of them being a foldable cardboard chair.
A little “slept-on” collaboration regarding furniture and design, was the “2035”, or “TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE” collection he released with VITRA. In case you missed it, we were fortunate enough to attend the launch event in Art Basel 2019 at the Vitra Campus - read the full story of here.
As mentioned, there’s just too much to cover and this was barely a tip of the iceberg of what he’s done and what he will do posthumously, but these are the ones that I remember mostly from his iconic era as a designer and a general influencer. There’s not enough words to describe the loss we’ve faced today, but like Daniel Arsham said; “You live in all your creations that surround us everyday”
Rest in peace Virgil, you are greatly missed already.
Curated by:
Oula Valkeinen
Photography on home page:
Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images