With a home base in Chicago, a dozen stores around the globe (including a brand-new one on Mercer Street in New York’s Soho), collaborations in the works with the likes of Nike and Ikea, and fashion shows on two continents (there is talk of something “small and intimate” at his shop during New York Fashion Week), Virgil Abloh’s life is defined by movement.
Come October 12, he’ll find himself front and center at Manhattan’s Milk Studios, where he’s participating in Vogue’s inaugural Forces of Fashion conference. The Off-White founder will be sitting down with Heron Preston and Vogue’s Chioma Nnadi to discuss exactly how, in a fast-changing industry like fashion, he keeps up the cool factor—both his own and that of his brand. Hint: It helps to have Hedi Slimane, Juergen Teller, and Pharrell Williams as influences.
Naturally, Abloh was on a plane when he answered our questions about the people, places, and pop culture moments that have defined his career so far. His is the first interview in a series we’ll be posting with Forces of Fashion’s designer participants. Watch this space for more, and visit vogueforcesoffashion.com to purchase tickets.
Designer: Hedi SlimaneHedi’s past predictions of what is and will be anti-fashionable and fashionable have proven to be spot-on, but beyond this concept, his career has exhibited how to remain strict to one’s vision and successfully lead a fashion house.
Model: Bella HadidWith an independent spirit and a strong sense of self, Bella has helped redefine what a modern-day supermodel is.
Photographer: Juergen TellerIn a day and age when we consume more visual imagery than ever, Juergen’s photos have an added ingredient that I personally describe as artistic emotion. For me, with his images, the emotions jump off the page.
Movie: Pretty WomanThe theme of Pretty Woman is inspirational in many ways. Both literally and figuratively, it offers a lot to draw from about society and how people relate to one another.
Band: N.E.R.DIf a band were ever ahead of its time but forever relevant to me, it’s N.E.R.D. With Pharrell Williams for a frontman and my high school dual obsessions with ’90s hip-hop and rock (and the subgenres of music that predated them both), N.E.R.D synthesizes it all for me.
TV show: Sex and the CityOf course, it’s a fashion cult classic, but ironically I find it more relevant now than then. Call it timing or aging, but Carrie is now common. Independent career women with a passion for fashion are muses whom I find inspiring and who form the base of many of my collections.
Place: ParisWhen I’m there I can almost instantly think of new ideas.
Art: Anything Marcel DuchampDuchamp’s work and theories affect how I see the world itself. He represents innovation.
Item of Clothing: A HoodieOur generation’s suit jacket. Without the hoodie, I wouldn’t have a career in fashion and I would be super-uncomfortable on this flight I’m currently on; it’s freezing in here. Moment:The day I believed in my own ideas as much as I believed in the things I love. Everything was a domino effect from that moment on. For more information on or to purchase tickets to the Forces of Fashion conference, visit vogueforcesoffashion.com.
