Virgil Abloh

Rewriting the Rules of Fashion

The Original Issue is a Black History Month editorial series from The Whitaker Group honoring Black fashion pioneers whose influence shaped global style long before it was named, credited, or claimed elsewhere. Positioned as a digital magazine, the series reframes Black American fashion as the original issue, the first print from which streetwear, luxury, and contemporary fashion continue to draw inspiration. Each featured pioneer is presented not as a footnote, but as a cover story, recognizing Black fashion as both cultural record and creative origin.

Before the industry admitted that streetwear belonged in luxury, Virgil Abloh was already building the bridge.

Born in Rockford, Illinois and raised outside Chicago, Abloh approached fashion as part of a larger creative ecosystem. He studied engineering and architecture before entering the fashion world, and that foundation shaped how he thought. To Virgil, clothing functioned as a framework for ideas, a system that could challenge power, reshape access, and communicate culture at scale.

Through Off White, he introduced quotation marks, industrial typography, zip ties, and conceptual layering into everyday wardrobes. He blurred the lines between critique and creation, between irony and sincerity. What some dismissed as disruptive was actually deliberate. He was questioning who gets to define taste and who gets to participate in shaping it.

In 2018, Abloh became the first Black artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton. The moment was historic, but it was also symbolic. A designer who built his voice from street culture and collaborative spaces was now inside one of fashion’s most powerful institutions. Instead of assimilating quietly, he used that platform to expand access.

He highlighted Black creatives. He referenced civil rights history. He launched initiatives such as the LVMH Black Database to increase opportunity across the industry. He treated success not as arrival, but as responsibility.

Virgil’s work made something clear. Streetwear was never separate from luxury. It was informing it all along. The codes that once lived in skate shops and neighborhoods were already shaping global style. He simply made that connection undeniable.

His influence reaches beyond aesthetics. It is structural. He shifted hiring pipelines. He mentored emerging designers. He created pathways that did not previously exist. He made collaboration feel central rather than secondary.

Virgil Abloh showed that fashion could be both intellectual and accessible, both exclusive and communal. He demonstrated that authorship belongs to those bold enough to claim it.

His passing in 2021 was felt far beyond the runway. It was felt in studios, classrooms, storefronts, and communities that saw themselves reflected in his work. His legacy continues to move through every designer who now believes there is room for them in spaces that once felt closed.

The Original Issue exists to honor pioneers whose influence reshaped culture long before it was universally acknowledged. Virgil Abloh did not just design clothes. He redesigned the possibility.

We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, collaborators, and the global community that continues to carry his vision forward.