OFF-WHITE

Off-White is another influence of mine. Off-White is a luxury fashion label founded by Virgil Abloh. The history of Off-White started with a ‘vision from Virgil’, and soon became a brand on everyone’s lips. Off-White is best known for its diagonal lines and industrial yellow tape. The designs of Off-White flaunt streetwear in a unique light. Virgil states he is ‘defining the grey area between black and white’. As stated by Virgil Abloh, it isn’t easy to categorize it as a fashion or an art brand due to its diversity. Virgil has made diversity the heart of his brand. To ensure inclusivity in all sectors of the industry he recently launched the ‘Post-Modern Fund’ to help Black Students in the fashion industry. Though fashion has long been open to diversity, Abloh is nonetheless one of the few Black figures to have reached the summits of its hierarchy. And in the context of George Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter and the acceleration of anti-racist protest, he no longer hides his desire to help his community (Alexis Thibault, 2022).

Virgil’s commitment to promoting diversity was clearly demonstrated at his runway show in January 2021 for the Louis Vuitton autumn/winter-2021 menswear collection. The show took the form of a film streamed on the brand’s website. The video included all the references dear to Abloh. The collection’s presentation is thematically informed by James Baldwin’s seminal 1953 essay “Stranger in the Village”. Through his experiences as an African-American visitor in a Swiss village, Baldwin’s essay serves as a leitmotif for Abloh’s explorations of a familiar present-day experience by reflecting society’s established structure of cultural outsiders vs. insider (Louis Vuitton,2022). This video-runway show was as impressive in its formal beauty as it was in the message it delivers. The runway show featured an all-star cast of artists, the performance revolved around cultural heritage.

In Virgil’s spring/summer-2021 Off-White collection, Abloh continued his desire for creating inclusivity by questioning traditional gender codes. Abloh stated “But we will fight to give voice to those who are hidden, so that at last the economic system will resemble the real world. Diversity in fashion is not a marketing technique. We’re simply looking to give voice to those who are invisible so that they can at last give their own view on the way they’re shown, idealized and exploited.”