Ghanaian-American Off-White designer Virgil Abloh dies
LVMH, Louis Vuitton and Off White have announced the death of Virgil Abloh, the Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton.
Abloh, a first-generation Ghanaian-American died on Sunday, November 28th, of cancer, which he had been battling privately for several years.
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“We are all shocked after this terrible news. Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom. The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow, and we are all thinking of his loved ones after the passing of their husband, their father, their brother or their friend,” Bernard Arnault, LVMH Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said.
Virgil Abloh was born on September 30, 1980, in Rockford, Illinois, to Ghanaian immigrant parents. His mother was a seamstress and his father managed a paint company.
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He was an artist, architect, engineer, creative director, and designer. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison, he completed a Master’s Degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in a curriculum founded by Mies van der Rohe.
Virgil Abloh’s brand Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™️ was started in 2012 as an artwork titled “PYREX VISION.” In 2013, the brand premiered a seasonal men’s and women’s fashion label showing runway collections during Paris Fashion Week since 2015.
In 2015, Virgil Abloh for Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™️ is among the finalists of the LVMH Prize.
Abloh has also presented his work at major design institutions around the globe by the likes of Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2019 he had a major exhibition of past and current work at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Illinois.
Virgil Abloh has been awarded various prizes throughout his outstanding career, most recently winning the British Fashion Awards “Urban Luxe” award and International Designer of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2017.
