Today his work is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, he is invited by prestigious universities such as Harvard to talk about his vision and is interviewed by the most prestigious art magazines. As Abloh himself put it in the notes that accompanied his first Louis Vuitton runway show, “3% of novelty is enough to completely transform an existing garment or accessory.” Composing with samples, these fragments of culture, is to understand that creation is unlimited.” Since nothing is created in a vacuum, each creator is inspired by those that preceded them, by those they admired: they build their own work on this heritage. “Perhaps the explosion of hip-hop should be seen as a metaphor for artistic democratization. A founding component in hip-hop since it emerged in the late 70s, the practice of sampling – composing a track from bits of existing music – became mainstream in the 90s, with all sorts of artists quoting in unexpected ways other people’s melodies or lyrics, often in reference to their wider cultural meaning. In his creative approach, this brilliant artistic director operates like an electro-music producer, starting out with samples and prototypes that he looks at anew. Indeed it was as a DJ – mixing tracks, reworking sounds to create new pieces – that he began to express himself as an adolescent. Rather than creating collections, furniture or artworks from his own subjectivity, he promotes work that borrows and takes its cues from existing fragments of our culture.

Postmodern in his approach, he envisages the creative industries in a radically new way, brilliantly mixing disciplines and cultural and artistic references to reinvent our times. The gen-Z idol, who was born in Rockford, Illinois, does it all: fashion, design, art, architecture, music. Since launching his brand Off- White in 2013, Virgil Abloh has spread his vision well beyond the limits of fashion, establishing himself as more of a visionary than a mere designer.

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