The late Virgil Abloh was an inspiration to millions worldwide. He  first came to fame in 2013 after the launch of his streetwear brand Off-White, which has since transformed into a luxury designer brand. There are not many items that cannot be found at Off-White, with items ranging from sunglasses, to rugs, to leather jackets. Abloh’s true motivation behind creating Off-White was to define the gray area between black and white as “Off-White.” 

Abloh grew up in Chicago with his parents. At a young age, he was fascinated with fashion and design. He always sketched the new designs that popped into his head, such as PYREX, his first brand that launched in 2012. He bought plain Ralph Lauren flannel shirts and screen printed the word PYREX on them in a thick white font towards the top and the number 23 on the back, paying homage to his childhood hero, Michael Jordan. 

Off-White clothing consists of an array of clothing, knitwear, bathing suits, shoes, and accessories. There are thousands of different items on the Off-White website along with their stores, scattered around the world. To create elegance, Off-White only has 3 locations in the United States: SoHo, Miami, and Las Vegas. These three stores have items that can only be purchased at their respective stores, making them harder to acquire and more sought after.

In 2017, Abloh collaborated with Nike and redesigned 10 of Nike's most popular models. He added many of his own touches to the existing models such as creating exposed foam on the tongue, the Off-White paragraph on the medial side of the shoe, and the ziptie and hang tab under the signature Nike swoosh. These features quickly became Off-White staples: Abloh's collaborations with Nike sold out in seconds and now resell for over 500% market value. 

He continued to collaborate with Nike and put his touch on many more models such as the Air Jordan 2, 4, and Nike Dunk Low.

In 2018, Abloh became the Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton. He designed many unique pieces for different seasons of clothing and created many collections such as his clouds collection, his collection for the NBA and many more.

His work was immediately very sought after: he often dropped pieces in limited quantities, making them very hard to acquire. Louis Vuitton was one of Abloh's dream collaborations and he was honored when he accepted the position. He said how thankful and lucky he was to be in this position. 

His work was immediately very sought after: he often dropped pieces in limited quantities, making them very hard to acquire. Louis Vuitton was one of Abloh's dream collaborations and he was honored when he accepted the position. He said how thankful and lucky he was to be in this position. 

Virgil Abloh died on November 28th, 2021, after privately battling a rare form of cancer called cardiac angiosarcoma. He was only 41 years old. Abloh often said “Everything I do is for the 17 year old version of myself.” Although Abloh was taken away from us far too soon, his mark on the fashion world will never be forgotten.