Biography

Virgil Abloh was born to Ghanaian parents who had emigrated to the United States in the late 1970s in search of new opportunities. He grew up in Chicago, where he was exposed to numerous cultural influences that shaped him. After graduating from high school, he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2002. In 2006, he completed his master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The career of the designer and artist, who passed away at the age of 41, is unparalleled. Abloh got his start in the fashion industry with an internship at Fendi in Rome, alongside his college friend Kanye West, and later rose to the top of the global luxury industry as creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton. Virgil Abloh’s designs draw inspiration from streetwear and skate fashion, a influence that is also evident in his own fashion brand, “Off-White,” which he founded in Milan. In addition to his successes as a designer, Abloh was deeply committed to social causes, advocating for African youth in Ghana as well as students from the Black community in the United States.

Abloh designed for numerous luxury brands. For an exhibition project by the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra titled “Twentythirtyfive,” he explored futuristic visions of living: The collaboration resulted in several limited editions, including the “Antony” chair, a reinterpretation of Jean Prouvé’s classic, as well as an orange, numbered ceramic block that can be used both as a sculpture and as a shelving element, and which Quittenbaum has already had the privilege of offering several times in design auctions. Abloh impresses with his versatility as a creative who built bridges and forged connections between disciplines and across eras, as he stated: “For me, the idea of design always involves a kind of bridge from the past to the future.”

Objects by Virgil Abloh