An Ode To Virgil
A collection of thoughts on the late creative genius Virgil Abloh
Zack Zens, Fashion Staff Writer
It is hard to imagine a world before Virgil Abloh—a world where streetwear and haute couture are not comfortable bedfellows, each learning and evolving from the wisdom of the other. A world so focused on being serious that it misses the whimsical insights of a boundless self and a world resting on its loins, complacent in the status quo. These ideas and emotions drove Virgil’s creative energy, an energy with such vigor that it would rival the most obsessive and fastidious of artists.
Born in Rockford Illinois, Virgil submerged himself from an early age in hip hop and streetwear culture, eventually graduating high school and receiving his bachelor’s at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his master’s from the Illinois Institute of Technology. His eventual rise to success and mainstream commendation began with an internship at Fendi in 2009 when Virgil Abloh struck up a creative friendship with acclaimed rapper Kanye West. The pair worked closely together with Abloh as creative director of Kanye’s creative team Donda and various other projects like Jay-Z’s prolific album Watch the Throne for which Vigil acted as artistic director.
Fashion’s dizzying pace often smothers and burns out designers before they can truly come into their own, artistically and visually. Virgil, on the other hand, seemed to feed off this energy, propelling his various creative ventures and projects into the mainstream. Few artists have the vim and vigor to dedicate themselves to a single fashion house producing two collections a year, not to mention two fashion houses producing several magnitudes more and involved in everything from jewelry and bags to furniture and cosmetics.
Ten years ago it was hardly fathomable that a streetwear brand like Off-White would be collaborating with a Swedish furniture magnate like Ikea; nevertheless, Virgil could fathom these changes, and few can reckon with the impact that he had on cultivating a new and vibrant bond between fashion brands and the creative world which surrounds them. Virgil’s pension for collaboration, for taking the brilliancy of others’ creative minds and enhancing it to an almost euphoric, confounding and iconoclastic ridiculousness, cannot help but fully absorb anyone who experiences his work in a way that is almost disabling.
Virgil was the first black creative director of any LVMH house, positioning him to advocate for equality and to open doors for other designers. Virgil took this responsibility and ran with it, opening the “Post-Modern” scholarship fund which seeks to support young artists in pursuits of higher education.
Virgil is gone too soon and one could only imagine what he would have accomplished if only given another year or ten. How many thousands of garments could have revolutionized the fashion industry and artistic culture? To many, Virgil was and remains a hero wholly dedicated to creating a world that is more keen and observant of the true beauties of life.
The tale of a great artist gone too soon is not a new one, but these sentiments neglect to account for what makes life worth living: uncertainty. Virgil may not have known how much time he had left, just as anyone does not know, but in the greater ephemerality of life, it can be certain that he spent every day striving to capture his dreams and to create beauty, open minds and change the world.