Fashion has been a staple of expression in society long before the first white tee was made. Clothes have been the symbols of status, culture and a representation of someone’s personality ever since people have had the ability to wear clothing outside of pure functionality. 

This pioneer of the modern fashion industry made people realize that the lines between streetwear and high fashion should be blurred together in order for anyone to make a statement however they want, and his name was Virgil Abloh.

Virgil was a multi-faceted and extremely talented artist of all kinds who was taken far too soon from this world.  In his fleeting 41 years of life, Virgil came out of Chicago to put the entire world on its head and he did that. He is currently responsible for playing a hand in a good portion of the creative trends of the last 10 years. 

 From being a student of architecture to the creative director at Donda and Louis Vuitton, Virgil’s origins did not convey where he would end up. 

Coming from a Ghanian household in Chicago, he took the usual route from high school to college. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, and received his Master of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2006.

His mother’s background as a seamstress helped foster his budding interest in fashion, and his degrees in architecture helped his creative development as an artist. He then eventually would further his education at an internship with Fendi. At this new opportunity, he would meet the person to catapult his career into absolute stardom as an artist.

He and Kanye West met each other under the same apprenticeship in Rome. During their time there together they fostered and nurtured a very healthy creative relationship that led to many wondrous things for the both of them.

This relationship led them both on a path of creative domination in the modern creation climate. Ye partnered with Virgil on numerous occasions for album covers, clothing and even planning out events together. Ye was able to pick up on Abloh’s talent quite fast and quickly made him his creative director of Donda.

Virgil started his career in fashion when he partnered with close friend Don C on a collaborative project called Pyrex vision. It meshed the worlds of high fashion and streetwear like never before. This Pyrex Vision led into what we now know as Off-White.

In an interview, Virgil said one of the main points of Off-White was to inspire kids who knew they couldn’t afford his pieces of clothing and for them to go out and make something better than Off-White themselves. Virgil saw fashion and art as a way to connect people and to constantly innovate and nurture creativity across the board.

Virgil’s growing success in the fashion community quickly grew with his constant successes alongside other big names in the artistic world. His efforts did not go unnoticed because eventually in 2018 Virgil was named the Creative Director of Louis Vuitton.

Virgil’s notoriety in modern fashion has led to some of the most iconic collaborations from the past 10 years. For example, the Supreme x Louis Vuitton collaboration could never have happened without Virgil. Another good example is the iconic Off-White x Nike collaboration. He gave us some of the most iconic sneakers of the past 5 to 10 years, like the Off-White Jordan Ones or the Off-White Vapor Maxes.

One of the most notable things that Virgil has done is actually outside of the things he created physically. The impact of Virgil‘s creativity and constant willingness to grow helped inspire lots of people that were close to him and many people who had far more power than him within the realm of fashion.

Virtual was nothing short of a creative genius who chose to not only think outside of the box but to be completely out of sight of it. Ironically his fundamental rule would be a 3% change to the original design was enough to create a completely different piece.

Virgil’s many connections allowed him to change lives and inspire people all over the world, and his artistic abilities were taken far too soon from this world. Despite that, Virgil has left behind three lifetimes’ worth of genius for us to enjoy.