In an industry that still is overwhelmingly white, Virgil Abloh’s appointment as creative director at old school fashion house Louis Vuitton was seen as a symbol of systemic change and regarded as a watershed-moment in fashion.
Originally focusing on architecture Abloh obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 and went on to study architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After working for an architecture firm for two years, Abloh shifted his focus to fashion. He started his fashion career when he interned at Fendi in 2009, the same year Kanye West did. They became close friends and supported each other’s ventures throughout their careers.
Virgil Abloh is the first African-American fashion designer to play a prominent role in the luxury fashion industry, but not only that – this multi-talent also designed his own luxury street wear label Off-White which he founded in 2013 as well as doing many collabs with other people and brands – from Kanye West to swedish furniture giant Ikea.
