The term ‘pioneer’ is used rather loosely these days, but, in the most genuine sense of the word, that is precisely what Virgil Abloh was. 

The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Abloh, by all accounts never set out to be a pioneer. But, then again, few pioneers do. In fact, from time of his birth in Rockford, Illinois in 1980 through his completion of a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed by a master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Abloh’s life appeared set on what can best be described as a more traditional trajectory. That is, until he met fellow Chicago-native Kanye West while completing his master’s degree in the early aughts. By 2002, thanks to reportedly skipping his final critique at the Illinois Institute of Technology in order to meet with Kanye’s business manager, West had named Abloh his creative director and so began the meteoric ascent of the man who would help turn luxury fashion on its ear. 

The creative collaboration between West and Abloh turned out to be a boon for the careers of both men. As West’s now multi-billion-dollar brand began to blossom so did Abloh’s forays into fashion and DJing. Abloh launched his first brand, Pyrex Vision, and honed his artistic vision with various projects including the launch of a retail space gallery. However, it was a notorious round of gate-crashing at the 2009 Paris Fashion Week shows, followed by Abloh joining West for an internship at the Fendi headquarters in Rome, where he first captured the attention of Louis Vuitton CEO, Michael Burke, which would set in motion a most portentous series of events for the young creative. In 2010, on the heels of their Italian internship, Virgil became the creative director of Kanye’s creative agency, DONDA, where, among a multitude of other projects, he designed some of Ye’s  most memorable album covers, along the way scoring a Grammy nomination for his work as the art director behind the album Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye. 

In 2014, Abloh debuted his Off-White collection in a revolutionary show that negotiated a harmonious marriage between streetwear and luxury fashion that shook the fashion world and won rave reviews. And by 2015, Off-White was nominated for the prestigious LVMH Prize. When Louis Vuitton found itself in need of an Artistic Director for its menswear collection in 2018, they turned to the man who had captivated their CEO during his internship at Fendi nearly a decade before and in one of the most buzzed about fashion events of the decade, Virgil Abloh became one of only two Black designers to land a leading design role at a Paris fashion house. That same year Abloh was named one of Time Magazine‘s 100 Most Influential People, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech, the first museum exhibition devoted to Abloh’s work in 2019. 

Only months before his death on November 28, 2021, LVMH acquired a majority stake in Off-White and named Abloh an executive consultant with responsibilities across the LVMH group. It was yet another monumental step forward for the Chicago native who had forged such a bold and innovative path to the highest reaches fashion. The world will never know what Abloh might have achieved or how he might have contributed to the evolution of fashion. But what we do know is that his work and his example will live on as a shining beacon of possibility and inspiration for all that come behind him.