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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Joshua Surtees

‘He put young Black creators in positions of power’ – how the late Virgil Abloh shook up fashion

Virgil Abloh at the Off-White autumn/winter 2021/2022 show in Paris.
Virgil Abloh at the Off-White autumn/winter 2021/2022 show in Paris. Photograph: Pierre Suu/Getty Images

‘There is a whole generation of Black people who went and bought their first sewing machine because of Virgil,” says the fashion critic Bliss Foster. “He saw what was happening before anyone else,” adds the DJ and producer Honey Dijon. And yet, according to the activist Trinice McNally, “a lot of people hated him”.

Louis Vuitton director Virgil Abloh certainly left a chasm in the fashion industry when he died last year at just 41. Founder of the beloved brand Off-White – worn by everyone from the Kardashians to kids in Croydon – and creative director for Kanye West, Abloh was one of the most important designers of the 21st century.

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