Take a peek inside his mind.
The Ghanaian-American fashion designer who burst onto the scene via his unique view on streetwear, Virgil Abloh, is set to display his first collection for Louis Vuitton tomorrow, and since being appointed as the artistic director of the house’s men’s wear the pressure to deliver something extraordinary has been building.
Specifically, Abloh sat down with the Financial Times to open up about his thoughts regarding his display, position, vision and past, here are some of the most notable things revealed by and about the creative.
Regarding his appointment...
“My relationship with the house [Louis Vuitton] I guess, started seven years ago. I interned at Fendi while Michael Burke [the current CEO of Louis Vuitton] was overseeing Fendi.” “Then, it was a series of meetings,” “And, then, all of a sudden, I got a call . . . ”
As for the reaction the community had to the appointment, Abloh said: “In America it felt like something had happened. Like, ‘you’re going to be head of a French house? You don’t look like every designer that’s come before.’ I’m a kid from Chicago, I know what it was like to see Obama become president. We felt the tectonic plates of the world shift.”
Regarding his vision and inspiration for his collection...
“I’ve talked myself around to stopping and thinking in the turbulence. The most important message is to let me just focus on making the most beautiful norm core clothes, but as luxurious as possible… “The very first thing I made here was a T-shirt. What’s the perfect weight? Why are fashion T-shirts usually so tiny? For me, there’s a subtlety in focusing on the right shape of T-shirt and pant. I recognise that it’s boring, but the idea is to catch people off-guard and reward in some valuable way.”
This mentality is set to be clearly shown in the upcoming set of offerings, in fact, Abloh said that: “A number of garments in the collection are laser-precise studies of the most normal, basic things that men wear today.”
Regarding how men wear clothes, and how they feel in them...
“The era before, you had to be skinny,” adding “I was like, that doesn’t relate. When you look outside, that’s not valuable. I just want to find the size medium that a lot of people could wear, and to not be oversized. People live by the size label in their garments. That affects their whole mental state. Their self-image is related to fit.”
Furthermore, Abloh had this to say about the perception of body image in fashion right now: “Are we just here leading trend of colour and garment, or can I launch a trend thinking about responsibility towards body image, to have an effect on people and society at hand?”
Head over to the Financial Times to read the full interview.
