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Archive1 October 2026

Virgil Abloh, born 30 September 1980: engineer and architect by training, Off-White 2013, Louis Vuitton's first Black menswear artistic director 2018, MCA Chicago 2019, LVMH 60 per cent 2021

Virgil Abloh was born on 30 September 1980 in Rockford, Illinois. He studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, worked as Kanye West's creative director from 2010, and founded Off-White in Milan in 2013. Louis Vuitton named him men's artistic director on 26 March 2018, the first Black designer to hold the post, and his first show for the house ran at the Palais-Royal that June. Off-White's collaborations reached Nike, IKEA and Jimmy Choo. He died on 28 November 2021, at 41, of cardiac angiosarcoma, diagnosed in 2019 and kept private while he carried on working. Photos: Myles Kalus Anak Jihem and GSAPPstudent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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01VIRGIL ABLOH WAS BORN IN ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, ON 30 SEPTEMBER 1980, A FIRST-GENERATION GHANAIAN-AMERICAN.
02HE TRAINED AS A CIVIL ENGINEER, TOOK A MASTER'S IN ARCHITECTURE, AND LECTURED AT DESIGN SCHOOLS, COLUMBIA'S AMONG THEM, HERE IN 2017.
03HE FOUNDED OFF-WHITE IN 2013.
04ON 26 MARCH 2018 LOUIS VUITTON NAMED HIM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF MENSWEAR, THE FIRST BLACK DESIGNER IN THE ROLE. HERE IN PARIS IN 2019.
05IN 2019 THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN CHICAGO GAVE HIS WORK A MAJOR EXHIBITION.
06IN JULY 2021 LVMH TOOK 60 PER CENT OF OFF-WHITE. HE KEPT 40 AND WIDENED HIS ROLE ACROSS THE GROUP.
07HE DIED ON 28 NOVEMBER 2021, AGED 41, OF A RARE CANCER HE HAD KEPT PRIVATE SINCE HIS DIAGNOSIS IN 2019.
08REST IN PEACE, VIRGIL. YOUR MARK ON THE WORLD CANNOT BE OVERSTATED, EVEN NOW.
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