In 2018, Virgil Abloh was appointed as the first Black creative designer of Louis Vuitton. As he walked down the Palais-Royale garden’s rainbow coloured catwalk for his debut show, the star studded audience, which included Kanye West, Bella Hadid, Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, were visibly moved by the historic moment.
His subsequent time helming the fashion house broke barriers and ushered in a new era for luxury fashion, which is now the subject of the new coffee table book, Louis Vuitton Virgil Abloh — the first since his untimely death in November 2021 to cancer.
Written by Abloh’s close collaborator, Anders Christian Madsen, the book is divided into eight chapters, one for each of the eight Virgil-orchestrated Louis Vuitton menswear collection and show, and comprises over 320 images and personal reflections from the creative director’s inner circle, including Nigo, Naomi Campbell, Luka Sabbat, Kendall Jenner and Kid Cudi. It covers everything from his first campaign for the label, to his imaginative three-dimensional show invitations, all of which is interspersed with quotes from Virgil Abloh himself, loving nicknamed “Abloh-isms”
Madsen notes in the press release, “as a Black creative with no formal training in fashion design, no list of established fashion houses on his CV […] Abloh saw himself as an infiltrator in high fashion: a true outsider who would become a groundbreaking figure.”
Virgil Abloh walks the runway during the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring Summer 2020 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 20, 2019
/ Getty ImagesThe book will be released mid-September in two collectible covers — one with an image of a kid bounding towards a red Louis Vuitton hot air balloon taken from Louis Vuitton’s spring-summer 2022 spinoff show in Miami. Another sports cartoon artwork by cultural icon Reggieknow, who illustrated the now cult characters for Virgil’s spring-summer 2021 show, which was the first time Louis Vuitton ever collaborated with a Black artist on the runway.
“There’s no limit… life is so short that you can’t waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do versus knowing what you can do,” Abloh famously said. And this book is certainly a testament to this core belief of his. Don’t miss it.
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