At just 41 years of age, designer Virgil Abloh passed away on 28 November after battling a rare form of cancer. He will be remembered as a statement-maker who shook up many facets of the design scene.
‘We are devastated to announce the passing of our beloved Virgil Abloh, a fiercely devoted father, husband, son, brother, and friend,’ stated a post on the designer’s official Instagram page, announcing his passing. ‘For over two years, Virgil valiantly battled a rare, aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma. He chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant intuitions that span fashion, art, and culture.’
Off-White flagship store in Paris.
Off-White flagship store in Miami Design District.
Indeed, when Virgil Abloh appeared on the design scene, he didn’t just appear. He dominated. Seemingly overnight, his name was everywhere. And it was on everything. He may have been a fashion designer – he started designing clothing in 2012; founded his own label, Off-White, in 2013; and was appointed head of menswear design at Louis Vuitton in 2018, the first black designer to join the fashion house’s ranks – but he appeared in Frame as the name behind furniture collections for the likes of Ikea and Vitra, and experimental interiors for Off-White.
As a trained architect, he collaborated with AMO to develop the aforementioned boundary-pushing stores for Off-White. (Incidentally, OMA/AMO won Designer of the Year at this year’s Frame Awards, while Virgil Abloh was nominated as Client of the Year.) While many retailers remained befuddled by the future of physical retail, Abloh was predicting its course with ‘social’, less-transactional flagships that flex between store, fulfilment centre and event space, or fuse hospitality with shopping. The former highlighted how, in the age of e-commerce, retail spaces need to be as adaptable as possible: Abloh was quoted as saying it could host anything from a runway show to a talk to a café, or even become an “Uber delivery of Off-White”.’ The latter – while tapping into another drawcard for physical retail: on-site hospitality experiences – reinforced the designer’s strength for picking of-the-minute collaborators; the coffee bar is powered by burgeoning brand % Arabica, yet another Frame Awards 2021 Client of the Year nominee, adding to a list of Abloh project partners that includes Nike, Moncler, Browns, Ssense and Converse.
Vitra and Virgil Abloh's TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE installation at the Fire Station on the Vitra Campus.
Being a boundary-pusher can draw controversy, though, and Abloh received his fair share of criticism – as evidenced by the love/hate response to his 2019 collaboration with furniture brand Vitra. During a conversation about the project at the Vitra campus, Vitra CEO Nora Fehlbaum spoke to this point, saying the company was ‘shell-shocked’ by the internet trolls that follow Abloh around. ‘You deal with this every day,’ she said. ‘How do you do it?’
‘I’m not concerned,’ came the response from Abloh. ‘It’s a body of work that’s being created just to see how far we can go. What is the future if designers aren’t brave enough to tackle new territory? If I listen to a critique, then I will create less… and what good is that?’
He is survived by his wife Shannon, and his children Lowe and Grey.
