The Off-White founder and first African-American to ever lead a French luxury fashion house had privately battled cancer for several years.
Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton and the first African-American to head a French luxury fashion house, has died of cancer at the age of 41.
LVMH, the French holding company that owns Louis Vuitton, said on Sunday that Abloh had passed away earlier that day after several years’ private struggle with the disease.
“We got into about 60 per cent of the shows,” Abloh said about that time in a 2017 interview with W Magazine.
That was the year that Abloh was named artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections, the first African-American to win such a role.
Off-White, he said, “is for the 17-year-old version of myself – whereas Vuitton is for the 37-year-old I am today”.
Meanwhile, he gained respect as a DJ, starting out with house parties in high school and later playing a nightclub residency at the Wynn luxury resort in Las Vegas, as well as two radio shows.
Virgil Abloh DJs on stage at the YouTube cocktail party during Paris Fashion Week2018.
Virgil Abloh introduces his fall/winter 2020 collection at Louis Vuitton in Paris, 16 January 2020.
Fans were shocked and dismayed by the announcement, with one post on Instagram by the Louis Vuitton brand account receiving almost 250,000 likes within its first hour?
“[Abloh] made Louis Vuitton fun again,” said one comment
The Hong-Kong-based fashion and media firm Hypebeast said: “Thank you for your distinctive vision and for inspiring a generation.”
Virgil Abloh is survived by his wife Shannon Abloh, his children Lowe Abloh and Grey Abloh, his sister Edwina Abloh, and his parents Nee and Eunice Abloh
Virgil Abloh arrives at his exhibition in Doha, Qatar, on 4 November 2021
Virgil Abloh DJs on stage at the YouTube cocktail party during Paris Fashion Week2018
Virgil Abloh introduces his fall/winter 2020 collection at Louis Vuitton in Paris, 16 January 2020
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