April 5, 2018: French luxury brand Louis Vuitton has welcomed the Illinois-born and bred Virgil Abloh as its new Men's Artistic Director. His first show for Louis Vuitton will take place in June during Men's Fashion Week in Paris.
"Having followed with great interest Virgil's ascent since he worked with me at Fendi in 2006, I am thrilled to see how his innate creativity and disruptive approach have made him so relevant, not just in the world of fashion but in popular culture today. His sensibility towards luxury and savoir-faire will be instrumental in taking Louis Vuitton’s menswear into the future," said Michael Burke, Louis Vuitton’s Chairman & CEO.
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. 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 will have a major exhibition of past and current work at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Illinois. He has been awarded various prizes, 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.
