During his collaborative work with the rapper and designer, he
caught the eye of the Louis Vuitton CEO, Michael Burke, through
his work at Fendi. Later that year, Abloh and West’s companion,
Don C, launched a retail store, called the RSVP Gallery, located in
Chicago. Their founded retail space became known for carrying
a mixture of fashion apparel, and for its reflection of Virgil’s style
on his design for the store interior. A year later, West appointed
Abloh the creative director of his creative agency, DONDA. In
2011, West asked him to serve as the artistic director for the 2011
Jay-Z/West album Watch the Throne. In 2012, Abloh launched
his first company, Pyrex Vision. Abloh purchased dead stock
clothing from Champion (sportswear) for $40, screen-printed
designs on them and sold them for prices upward of $550. The
stated goal of Pyrex Vision was to represent the importance of
youth culture, by centering the designs around a garment that
most youth would notice from gym class. Virgil’s ideas could
be clearly geared around the importance of the now. He closed
the company down a year later as he did not intend it to be a
commercial enterprise but an artistic experiment.
OFF-WHITE AND MAINSTREAM SUCCESS
Abloh founded his first fashion house and second business
overall in 2013 with the high-end streetwear brand Off-White.
Based in Milan, Italy, the company was described by Abloh as
“the gray area between black and white as the color off-white”
to investors and fashion critics. During the launch of his brand,
he received help from the New Guards Group, who also assisted
many other designers and brands, such as Palm Angels, Heron
Preston, and Marcelo Burlon. Abloh’s brand lead towards a
widespread gain of attention for his apparel beginning in Paris,
then expanding to China, Tokyo, Japan and the United States.
The clothing line can be identified through its use of quotation
marks, zip-ties, capital letters and barricade tape. He launched
the company’s women’s wear line in 2014 and showed the
collections at the Paris Fashion Week. His line was selected as a
finalist for the LVMH Prize, an industry award, but lost to
26 | Colossium . March 2020