Virgil Abloh’s successor has large shoes to fill

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Almost a year since the death of Virgil Abloh at the age of 41, the former artistic director of Louis Vuitton Menswear from 2018, until he lost a battle with cancer last November, the designers rumoured as his successor include Telfar Clemens, Grace Wales Bonner, and Martine Rose.

The fashion industry is famous for playing a game of designer musical chairs but the next creative to take the reins at Louis Vuitton not only has big shoes to fill after Abloh, but also the shoes of his predecessors Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs. Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) executives have spent nearly a year searching for a new creative to move its menswear brand forward.

Young sartorial disruptors

The life of Abloh begins in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois. Born to parents who immigrated to the US from Ghana, Abloh’s exposure to the world of garment-making begins with his mother, a seamstress who taught Abloh the tricks of her trade. Fast-forward to 2002, and Abloh completes an undergraduate degree in civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only to gain a master’s degree in 2006 in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. 

Despite not having any formal fashion training during this time, Abloh credits a building designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas as a catalyst for piquing his interest in fashion, Abloh said in Systems Magazine.

Looking for a way into the world of luxury fashion, Abloh — along with creative peer Kanye West — lands an internship at the Italian house Fendi in 2009. 

At the time, Fendi’s chief executive Michael Burke (who now holds the same position at Louis Vuitton) told the New York Times he has been following Abloh’s career “ever since”. 

Despite details of the internship being unclear, Abloh’s ability to bring “a new vibe to the studio and be disruptive in the best way”, paired with West’s celebrity connections, start to weave the lore of Abloh’s fashion career trajectory.

Since the Fendi internship, Abloh’s place in the fashion world could not be separated from that of West’s. A 2009 photo of Abloh, West  and other sartorial disrupters sporting Louis Vuitton and Goyard briefcases, taken outside a Comme des Garçons show in Paris for Style.com, went viral.

The photographer Tommy Ton told Vogue: “This was actually before street style had become such a phenomenon and you could really see how much Kanye loved fashion and clothes, and Virgil did too.” 

When recalling this street style moment, Abloh told W magazine they were the “generation that was interested in fashion and weren’t supposed to be there”.

‘Everything in quotes’

The era of “street wear” enters the fashion world from 2012, when Abloh launches Pyrex Vision,  Abloh’s introduction to the fashion world as a designer and the fashion world’s introduction to Abloh and his vision. 

Originally a blog on youth culture, Pyrex Vision evolved into a clothing range geared towards youth with $400 deadstock Ralph Lauren flannels, all of which sport Michael Jordan’s numbers “23” and “45”, so everyone feels like part of the team.

In 2014 Abloh renames Pyrex Vision Off-White, which “bridges the gap between the street wear trends of the time and luxury fashion”, he told British Vogue in 2018. Diagonal sprays, iconic quotation marks, signature zip ties and yellow warning-tape belts are the instantly recognisable cornerstones of the Off-White moniker.

Not only do the graphic design elements of Off-White become iconic but they leave an impression wherever they are inserted — inscribing “Shoelaces” on shoelaces of the highly coveted collab with Nike Air Force 1, engraving Ikea homeware with “Sculpture” or “Little black dress” on a simple, long-sleeved shirt dress. 

Abloh says everything that lives in quotation marks remains indefinite, meaning there is always room for questions.

SS23 tribute: GOAT status

Louis Vuitton continues to celebrate Abloh’s legacy as seen in the SS23 Menswear Collection, titled “Strange Math”, which looks at the duality of imagination and reality. The show was more than a sincere public memorial but a sincere celebration with a powerful performance by Kendrick Lamar. Models strapped Louis Vuitton sound systems to their backs, highlighting Abloh’s passion for design and hip-hop influence.

The maison has published a book Louis Vuitton Virgil Abloh, Collector Edition as a “testament of a relationship that changed the course of fashion history”, cementing Abloh as a fashion GOAT (greatest of all time).

Revolution or evolution?

The Business of Fashion (BOF), first broke the story in August that LVMH is expected to announce a new menswear creative director, pointing to Clemens, Wales Bonner and Rose. 

BOF said they were tipped off that Louis Vuitton CEO  Burke was seen at Rose’s show in June. A similar sighting occurred at Abloh’s Off-White show before he joined Louis Vuitton.

When executives are looking for a successor, each brand has its own personality and climate in which a successor is chosen, specifically the sensitivity around Abloh’s death and his role within the fashion industry.

A fashion house looking for a revolution — a new jolt or growth spurt — makes the brand relevant again in a new way. 

Jacobs’ time at Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2014 injected the maison with contemporary culture and playfulness. The brand created a desirable storm and everyone wanted a piece. However, it is when Jones entered the chat that Louis Vuitton menswear embraced street wear styles, skating and collaborations with Supreme, which lasted until his departure in early 2018.

When a brand’s formula is working well, a brand may seek evolution, especially when a designer leaves prematurely or when customers are still paying enough attention. Abloh’s appointment to Louis Vuitton was both a revolution and evolution — revolutionary because Abloh was the first black designer appointed to the position in a global luxury brand, yet evolutionary after Jones because there was a symbiotic energy between the street wear aesthetics of Abloh and Jones.

However, Abloh’s introduction of new silhouettes that tell the vibrant story of the brand’s creative processes and his sources of inspiration earned him the title of “The Disruptor”. His debut spring-summer 2019 show “We Are the World”, with a rainbow runway, live jazz band and diverse model casting is disruptive enough to shed a whole group of older customers in exchange for new aesthetics and a new school of customer.

Virgil’s vocabulary

Abloh’s understanding of curating an inclusive experience for a new generation of LV customers is subtly interwoven through tangible fashion-adjacent moments. The show-notes for “We Are the World” is not a typical three-paragraph, one page  card, but an 18-page-long, well-packaged 360° view that tells one everything, setting the tone of inclusion for the show.

The booklet lists the model’s name and details of the outfit intended for buyers but is invaluable to fashion consumers who are ever-hungry to know everything they can about a garment. If anything, a runway show is the ultimate trompe-l’oeil where a piece may look like cotton, when it is actually neoprene velvet, like look 51 of the show.

A map of the world, with coloured dots scattered throughout, pinpointed each model’s place of birth, as well as their mother’s and father’s places of birth. The map is the most literal application of the We Are the World reference.

“The vocabulary according to Virgil Abloh, a liberal definition of terms and explanation of ideas, are six pages where [Abloh] is mimicking what academics do at the back with a glossary of terms. Virgil is using this to give definition of these terms as they apply to his usage in the show,” says Bliss Foster, a fashion critic and commentator.

Abloh defines the design notion “3%”, as “the exact ratio needed to twist a normative object into something special”. This 3% is the essence of the creative director role — to create a vision for the house while they have to sell products for the brand because that is the big money-maker.

“The task of taking classic LV luggage and finding a way to make that unique and special for a new generation of consumers, one has to figure out something that is going to heavily reference the classics, while doing something that looks totally fresh,” explains Foster.

The role is to fuel the business, take it forward, excite customers and design beautiful products. LV needs that creative energy and excitement, or else there is nothing to sell.

Abloh literally redefines his meaning of designer as, “I don’t call myself a designer, nor do I call myself an image-maker. I don’t reject the label of either. I am not trying to put myself on a pedestal, nor am I trying to be more, now. I would like to define the title of artistic director for a new and different era.”

Designer as the merchant

In a post-street wear menswear world, the three rumoured designers tapped to join Louis Vuitton share a golden thread — not only can they design for a fashion audience but they are good product designers.

Wales Bonner’s collaboration with Adidas brought the Samba silhouette back into high demand as seen on Lyst’s hottest brands report of 2022. 

Clemens’s iconic shopper tote brings hype and desirability to products for people who had previously been excluded from fashion conversations, similar to Abloh. 

Rose’s focus on subcultures is under the watch of Louis Vuitton’s parent company since being shortlisted for the 2018 LVMH Prize.

Abloh is a product genius. The harness; Louis Vuitton Air Force Ones; classic LV clutch-sized trunks as speakers and prismatic, holographic renditions of LV’s classic silhouettes show his ability to take both design and vision and combine them with a strong commercial product sensibility, in other words, merchandising.

Abloh’s show booklet does just that while showing the vision from the start. It is a piece of merch showing a vision that everyone at the house buys into and extends to store design, marketing campaigns and social media, of course. This comes  from the artistic director’s vision, not just runway shows.

“This set a tone of radical inclusion and infinite seats at the table, which is something Abloh has pushed for much of his career,” recalls Foster.

A post-Abloh creative director needs to take their vision and turn it into clobber, things you can sell. Jacobs is not a merchant and he recognises that. The creative director role requires that merchant-like mindset, said BOF journalist Lauren Sherman when she spoke to Jacobs.

Most of the world’s largest fashion brands do not have a single person designing every piece of clothing, accessory and product in isolation — it takes a whole team of specialised shoe, handbag, clothing and accessory designers. Louis Vuitton has a strong handbag designer, as well as a women’s wear designer Nicolas Ghesquière, who is a strong runway designer, which differs from a menswear creative director.

A challenge of these potential appointees is they all have their own brands. A designer has to be ready to work with the business but designers would have to prioritise their creativity for the LVMH brands over their personal brands. Designers are also community builders, engaging new customers who had been previously excluded by the fashion industry or who didn’t see themselves as being Louis Vuitton customers. 

No matter how long a designer stays at a brand, or how successful their years at the helm of the house are, a brand always needs a new face, a refresh. 

Louis Vuitton’s new creative director is tasked with moving the brand forward in response to Abloh’s legacy. Regardless of who it will be, the biggest luxury fashion brand in the world still requires creative talent to fuel that business, to draw people in. But Virgil Abloh’s name will remain in the fashion hall of fame at LVMH. 

From an engineering degree to Louis Vuitton

2006-2009: Virgil Abloh earns an undergraduate degree in engineering in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in architecture in 2009 from Illinois Institute of Technology.

2009: Abloh interns at Fendi with Kanye West, where they gain notoriety for their youthful spirit and new approach to luxury fashion.

2010: Abloh’s relationship with West continues as creative director of Donda, West’s creative agency.

2011: Abloh art directs the album Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and West, an achievement that earns him a Grammy nomination.

2012: Abloh launches his first street wear brand, Pyrex Vision using deadstock Ralph Lauren, that bridges the gap between luxury fashion and sportswear.

2014: Pyrex Vision evolves to Off-White, Abloh’s street wear brand that gains a cult following by the luxury fashion world and hype beasts alike.

2017: First collaboration between Nike and Off-White on the first edition of the iconic Air Force 1 silhouette.

2018: Abloh is named creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear.

2019: The Chicago native collaborates with Ikea on “Markerad” upgrading everyday homeware according to his 3% principle.

2021: On 18 November, it is announced that Abloh has died after a private battle with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer.