Marques’Almeida and Jacquemus. Abloh
launched his first concept store for Off-
White in Tokyo, Japan, where he started
the company’s furniture arm, Grey Area. In
2017, he was asked to design a new collection
in conjunction with Nike entitled “The
Ten” where he re-designed a variety of the
company’s best-selling shoes. Through Abloh’s
re-designing he exercised his self-made rule of
only editing the shoes 3% of the way because
he was intrigued by still maintaining the
original design of the shoe.
of America. The council seeks to promote
the American fashion industry. Virgil Abloh
created a custom Off-White gown and veil for
Hailey Bieber’s wedding day. On the veil, he
included his famous quotation marks design
around the words “till death do us part”. Virgil
Abloh is undisputedly the king of streetwear as
he continues to ‘wow’ the world with amazing
designs and setting fashion trends globally.
OFF-WHITE AND COLLABORATIONS
Virgil also partnered up with the Swedish
furniture company IKEA to design furniture
for apartments and houses also easy to carry
tote bags imprinted sculptures in the middle.
The collection will be named Markerad, which
is a Swedish word meaning “clear-cut; crisp;
pronounced”, and is scheduled to release in
2019. Virgil envisions the collection to include
practical furniture that features contemporary
designs. Abloh has worked towards fulfilling
his vision for the collection by sketching out
drafts of generic pieces of furniture, while
adding his own aesthetics to the designs
by using a doorstop to level out furniture
items. Abloh worked on designs for chairs,
coffee tables, beds, storage cabinets, mirrors
and carpets apart of his collaboration with
IKEA. Abloh uses quotation marks to convey
detachment from society and social norms.
During the rise in neo-nationalism in 2017
Abloh worked with conceptual artist Jenny
Holzer to create a line emphasizing the positive
aspects of immigration, cultural integration,
and globalization. In December 2017, he
worked with Holzer again to design T-shirts
for Planned Parenthood in response to the
Women’s March on Washington.
In 2019, Abloh was appointed to the board of
directors of The Council of Fashion Designers
27 | Colossium . March 2020
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