Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American designer Virgil Abloh.
Last updated on September 9, 2024.
Virgil Abloh was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilities across the LVMH brand in early 2021. Abloh was also the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013.
I believe in the romantic interchange between intellectuals about fashion.
Graphic tees are vibes. And I think they're the basis of a lot of wardrobes, but that makes it challenging to distill what you're brand means within a T-shirt.
I'd do anything at the right time, and I would also do things at the wrong time if they felt right.
I just wanna start a brand that inspires and is geared towards youth.
My graphic design skills are superior to a lot of other things I can do; I use it as a part of my tool kit.
When creativity melds together with global issues, I believe you can bring the world together.
I don't come up with ideas in a test tube; I come up with ideas by breaking test tubes. That's how I've always been.
I don't have to choose between high fashion or streetwear. My brand reminds me that it doesn't have to fit in a box. It can just be in a gray area.
I want Off-White to be a graphics-based brand.
For me, as I was growing up, I studied architecture, I was into music, and I always felt that there was a gap between the things that I loved and consumed and who made them and how they made them.
I don't sleep as much as normal people do.
Criticism doesn't worry me.
Whenever I'm doing a collection, I'm inspired by the world around us.
I look at culture, and I see what the kids around me are wearing, and I see a particular style. I understand the space between fashion and streetwear.
I have this overriding principle that streetwear could end up like disco: that it will be perceived well at the time but doesn't age well at all.
The most valuable thing in culture is to find something first - so everyone is always looking.
Clothing interests me, but it's not the endpoint of my interest.
Ironic things are interesting.
'Creative director' is a catchall phrase for giving ideas. To me, it obviously means more than that. It's like being a counselor.
Fashion is kinda a joke. I don't get too bogged down in the clothes. For me, it's one big art project, just a canvas to show that fashion should have a brand which has someone behind it who cares about different contexts. Social things.
Every idea that comes to mind I execute, or I look for outlets to put out ideas.
I always live in multiple places. I'm never in the same city for seven days.
I don't have the patience to be a non-creator.
The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other, and that's how you create things that are totally new.
I'm not really into style. I'm more into confidence or having something to say.
Fashion and music are two great artistic forms that can be molded by the youth culture - our taste and our passion for evolving things in our limited time on earth allows us to look at things with fresh eyes.
For me, I analyze the modern girl, the girl that I'm friends with, and they're empowered: They pay their own bills. They have their own style. They wear clothes - the clothes don't wear them.
I want to put culture on a track so that it becomes more inclusive, more open source.
The concept with Off-White is that I have no ideal target. It's more about trying to make something for everyone. And I think that's what helps make it unique. That there isn't a specific muse.
My place in design history is to sort of interpret youth culture, and I think we've seen that done in fashion before - it's not a new concept - but it hasn't been done with the same vigour in a modern context.
My motivation is, in part, a bit of angst that comes from feeling like I don't belong, that our generation doesn't belong.
DJing is my only peace of mind. When the phone is off, I play my favourite songs really loud for myself, and I'm not talking to anyone; I'm not managing anything. It's just, like, a time when I can listen to music.
I think the reason why Off-White exists is to modernize fashion.
My general premise is not about selling clothes. If that's your end goal, then all of a sudden everything looks the same, you know - you start designing by numbers.
People, when they say 'streetwear,' they miss the central component, which is that it's real people; it's clothes that are worn on the street.
From my perspective, I'm trying to stand for a generation. You know, each generation has designers who go along with it.
It is an honor for me to accept the position of men's artistic director for Louis Vuitton. I find the heritage and creative integrity of the house are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times.
The amount of random conversations that lead to culture-shifting ideas is insane.
I'm a kid from Chicago. I know what it was like to see Obama become president. We felt the tectonic plates of the world shift.
I started off as a kid who didn't care what my education was.
I'm fascinated by the idea that a human connection can be triggered through inanimate devices.
I don't want to be a celebrity designer. I want to keep my personal life out of it.
I can come up with 30 T-shirt designs in a day, but it's just about where to slot each of them. That's streetwear to me. It's about knowing where to buy things, not this mass thing you can get anywhere.
Art is made in hindsight.
Everything I do references something that influenced me.
To me, graphic T-shirts are the most important and most expressive format for a designer or a person. Your taste in graphic tees says a lot about your point of view.
If you look at why people become wack as they get older, it's because they stop doing the things they did that were formative to their work. You can't mentally stay still. You can't not challenge yourself.
I think my original ambition was to be an artist.
I was never meant to, like, work and then turn it off and sit on the couch. I just have a vision, and I'm inspired by it. It's sort of what makes me tick.
My goal was to tell a dialogue between high fashion and streetwear. So, the name Off-White, in my mind, is between black and white. So, that middle ground is a mixture between both genres of fashion.
Kanye's the best. He really, really is. He's cool. And why we've always gotten along is because we can just sit down and talk about art.
I suck at sleeping.
Pyrex Vision's first season was, for me, an expression of myself as an artist first, designer second.
My style is to never say no.
Growing up, at high school, we all used to wear Champion garments, which, in America, are standard-issue gym uniforms.
I'm always trying to prove to my 17-year-old self that I can do creative things I thought weren't possible.
I do fashion to tell a narrative.
You can look at Lil Uzi and know he has a strong opinion about his aesthetic.
There's a part of me that's trying to represent kids that don't necessarily have the same outlet that I have. I'm not looking towards a new demographic. I'm looking towards the demographic I came from.