Mari Sato
By Mari Sato
Virgil Abloh straddles between myth and legend. The late designer, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 41, rose to the top of the fashion industry at an unprecedented speed. He was a multifaceted creative and intellectual, earning a master’s in architecture, dabbling in film, was an avid DJ, and of course, designed clothing. Abloh became a finalist in the 2015 LVMH prize with his brand Off-White and went on to be the creative director of Louis Vuitton.
Although Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and former Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan was initially skeptical of Abloh’s work, his ability to connect deeply with fans ultimately inspired her to chronicle his life and legacy.
This past Wednesday, Oct. 22, the SMU Fashion Media program sponsored an exclusive event featuring Robin Givhan in Owen Arts Center. The conversation was facilitated by Dr. Ethan Lascity, chair of the Fashion Media program. Givhan discussed her latest book, “Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh,” and focused on Abloh’s community of fans, his working relationship with Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), and the power dynamics between race and gender within the fashion industry.
In an exclusive interview with SMU Look Media, Givhan reflected on Abloh’s life and legacy:
What was the first time meeting Virgil like?
My first meeting with him was truly just in passing. I would say the one I remember is when he was a semifinalist for the LVMH prize with Off-White. It was this big, open call basically where all the semifinalists had these little booths where they had their collection, and editors and retailers could do this drive-by where they could see everything. That was the first time that I really met him. It was striking because there was a lot of activity around his booth. Mostly, it was because Kanye West was standing there. And it was just seeing him in contrast with Kanye. He [Virgil] was a very low-key, chatty person. I wouldn’t describe him as an extrovert in that he didn’t have to be the center of attention. He was very chatty, wasn’t shy. He was quite serious about the work and what he was doing. I had seen him at a lot of fashion shows because he and Kanye would come in just to be able to attend the show and see the collections unfold. So being able to actually talk to him a little bit confirmed what I had assumed about him, which was that he seemed like he was a very genial guy. The moment when I really got a sense of him was much later, and it was during COVID when he had just started the scholarship under the umbrella of the Fashion Scholarship Fund, and he was doing a video call with all of these students from different colleges. And I was supposed to have a conversation with him and then facilitate a Q&A with the students. It was the degree to which he seemed willing to spend endless amounts of time talking to these students. It was obviously a really busy, high-pressure time for him. In hindsight, I realized that he was dealing with cancer, even then. I remember the students were asking him so many questions. And at one point, the fashion scholarship guy was like, well, maybe this should be the last question. And Virgil said, No, I love your questions. Ask me your questions. I have all the time in the world. In hindsight, it’s such a profound thing to say, but it was also a very generous thing to say. And it was a reflection of Virgil in real life, doing what Virgil had been doing on social media when someone would DM him.
You started your career covering Detroit’s techno scene, and Virgil was deeply influenced by that same genre. How do you see the relationship between music and fashion, and which do you think drives the other?
It is a bit chicken or egg. I think with techno, in those really early days and the fashion that was really attached to it, it’s a bit blurry. It wasn’t in the same way that you have punk or some pop. It wasn’t something that was that obvious, but it did connect people to that whole world of Euro style. I think that was there, and it made people very interested in a lot of those European magazines, like New Music Express was one of them. But for Virgil, I almost feel like the techno part of it was like his connection to Europe and his connection to places like London and Brussels. The hip hop part of it was his connection to the urban centers in the States. And then his delight in skateboarding, grunge and Nirvana was Virgil, the suburban kid who grew up in a mostly white environment. And I think those were the ways that music converged to give him his aesthetic diet. He would talk about his DJing style. He mentioned throwing Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock into the mix and that conjures up a visual image. When I think about some of the things that he did for Off-White, his fascination with varsity jackets. You could see that having a very 50s vibe to it. And the hazard lines that speak to acid house and Techno, and all that happening in Europe. You see bits and pieces of it, but I wouldn’t say that he was overwhelmingly influenced by any one genre. He was influenced by a lot of things. He was a bit of a sponge and a pickpocket.
Virgil subverted the gatekeeping system within fashion. Do you think he succeeded in changing those systems within the fashion industry and also within broader culture?
You caught me on a very optimistic day. I think it takes the [fashion] industry a very long time to both learn a lesson and apply the lesson. But I’m feeling very optimistic because I’m very happy that Grace Wales Bonner just got Hermès. I’m a big fan. I think she’s extraordinarily talented. I think that she is so thoughtful in looking to different places for inspiration and interpreting diversity in ways that are incredibly regal and noble. And so, because of that, I feel like maybe fashion did learn a lesson. If you think about what luxury means in different ways, you are that much more creative, and there are great rewards in being creative. But I also think that in many ways, Virgil’s biggest impact is really for people who are outside the industry, looking in and feeling like they don’t have a path into the industry. And I think Virgil was really inspiring to them. And his success encourages them to really ask themselves, why can’t I do this? Why shouldn’t I be the one? Why aren’t my skills that are different just as valuable?
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