It started over the pandemic, where I made a content stream of supporting creatives giving creatives voice, fashion, art and culture. Virgil Abloh elevates sneakers into the realm of visual culture where they become cultural objects,” says Zak Kyes, founder of London-based studio Zak Group which partnered with Abloh for the design of the book. At the time he said, “I get frustrated if I don’t feel an evolution, and the message becomes monotonous. Use our White Book Specification Selectorto guide you to the right system and products that meet your project requirements. Virgil Abloh was fashion’s most frequent flyer, a multi-hyphenate creative director, DJ, architect, serial collaborator, and amplifier for the voices of the Black community.

Let’s start with the exhilaration, though: As the effective opener to the first IRL Paris haute couture season since the pandemic hit, it was joyful reunion, a fantastic repurposing of the ritual of the catwalk as a measure of change, and a brilliant performance by MIA, all rolled into one. Orchestrated by fashion’s master of simultaneous, multi-channelling action, there was much going on in all directions—not for nothing did he name it “Laboratory of Fun.

Now under the creative direction of Ibrahim Kamara, create statement outfits with Off White hoodie and sweatshirt, monogram shirts, structured and t-shirts in monochromatic hues and bold graphics.

Often, at his most earnest, he says things like, “We’re lucky to have a public that is now prime to support brands. He’s a complicated hero to have: Last summer, he worked with the extremely famous socially conscious conceptual artist Jenny Holzer to create a line of pro-immigration and anti-neo-nationalism statement pieces, and that winter, he designed T-shirts for Planned Parenthood. That seemed more contemporary than just, like, models walking in a straight line, as if they’re hangers for garments to sell them, you know? At the same time, he still stands by stylist Ian Connor, a hip-hop staple who has been accused of rape more than 20 times.

In 2017, Off-White partnered with Nike to redesign 10 of the company’s best-selling and classic styles. Like the founder's range of clothing, Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh handbags challenge convention through architectural shapes, inventive textures and unexpected elements. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription.

Here he saved his biggest statement for a pair of white flags printed with the phrase, “Question Everything.Originally teaming up with the sportswear giant in 2017 for a remixed, red-plastic-tagged reimagining of Nike’s most recognisable styles, “The Ten” collection became one of the biggest collaborative collections in sneaker history. There is one image in the book which symbolises this and which Kyes says crystallised the entire project for him. It is not at all a challenge to find people who will say Abloh is leading a cult of personality dependent on teens who don’t know better, that his undeniable historical significance as the most prolific designer of his generation is at odds with his seeming disinterest in giving anyone a good reason to care. With the opening chapter centring the visual history of Abloh’s collections, ICONS shifts its focus to creating a lexicon that defines the key people, places, objects, and ideas that shaped the project.