Virgil Abloh is Saving Luxury With T-Shirts | In the Studio

As an architecture student, I had a professor that said I didn't have the pedigree or ideas or skill set to sort of work in any sort of important context. So every no is perfect for me. I thrive off a no. Off-White is sort of my resume and mood board for an actual idea that I have for like the modern luxury brand. It's almost like a laboratory. For me, it's like my teenage years is the foundation for everything that I've sort of done afterward. I was like an average, sort of, suburban kid that w

as skateboarding, listening to Nirvana, Beastie Boys, rap, Wu-Tang. Like you say the music, you can think of a look. And so as I started thinking about clothing, I was always like drawn to what my initial interest was, and that was T-shirts. For Off-White, my contribution was I would take a young idea of streetwear, this idea that T-shirts and hoodies are important, but making that in the same factories as luxury houses. So that's why we're in Italy. This is men's team working on pre-collection

next season. Shoes are happening in the back. This is the women's room. I just moved to this newer space because the concept is growing. How's it going? New office, it's nice in here. But I have no desk in the world. [LAUGHS] I travel probably, like, 320 days a year, eight flights a week-- Chicago, Frankfurt, Milan, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Vegas, and LA. It's a lot. I work on the street literally, like phone in hand. I feel like Off-White be one of the truly first, sort

of, like, a luxury brand that's been just built from social media. It behaves in this sort of hybrid, in between a traditional system and a new system less than streetwear, that clothes just come out at different times. They're posted on Instagram, and consumers can buy them. And I'm interested in that hybrid in between them both. I'm directly pointed at this generation that hasn't been messaged luxury to yet. As an Off-White sort of look, I'm looking to put this with like a T-shirt and jeans pe

rhaps. This Millennial young person, they love to covet things. They're sort of waiting for a designer that sort of faced to them. I want to make a modern version of her wedding dress. I like this. I like seeing the shoulder. I love this idea that Off-White can go from like a study graphic T-shirts all the way to a wedding dress under this sort of muse that I've dictated for the season. This current collection that I'm developing, choosing Princess Diana, the muse, is sort of this resonance. It'

s super like young Diana. Yeah, I couldn't be happier. It looks like the sketch. Can you walk? This is always what I wanted to do. And no one does it, haute couture meets street. But people say it all the time. I've had the fortunate ability to sort of craft my own path. People ask me all the time, do you feel some sense of like achievement or fulfillment? And the answer's zero. I have no-- there's no feedback loop that's like, yes. I'm only interested in my making new things, like getting to th

is place of the next idea. I think bell bottoms are going to come back because everyone has in their closet skinny jeans, boyfriend jeans. I also like for women, let's buy dickies, girls in dickies pants, cropped.