A man in demand, Virgil Abloh is the men’s artistic director for Louis Vuitton and the founder of Off-White. Alongside this, the 38-year-old is also on the board of the CFDA; a DJ; a visual engineer; and a collaborator with brands such as Ikea and Nike.
With all this going on, the Chicago-based creative has announced he will be taking a three-month break from travelling and public life, and instead, working from home.
In an interview with Vogue, he explained: “I’m excited to drop the kids off at school and be able to be here for those moments… In high school I always took pride in the award where you didn’t have any sick days (but now) being busy isn’t working. But I’m using this as I do everything else, as a way to propel me forward.”
This, of course, means he will miss his Off-White SS20 show, which is scheduled for September 26 in Paris. But this doesn’t mean anything will change – “My Off-White team is equipped to handle this – the show will go on.”
“Virgil is designing the Off-White show in Paris to replace his attendance, with a creative new approach that will include crowd participation,” a spokesperson for Abloh said in a statement. “He continues to work closely with his teams at Louis Vuitton and Off-White as well as with brands he collaborates with around the world.”
After finding it difficult to recover from a trip abroad in August, his current hiatus is due to doctors’ concern for his health. Being told his busy schedule, which includes flying internationally eight times a week and appearing at a number of public events, is becoming detrimental, Abloh has chosen to cancel a few upcoming appearances.
As well as his SS20 Off-White show, Abloh will no longer participate at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion conference next month or the opening of his Figures of Speech exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in November.
The announcement serves once again to highlight the ever-increasing, breakneck speed of fashion and the pressures it places on even its most celebrated designers, with the likes of Alber Elbaz, Raf Simons, and Martin Margiela all having previously discussed its unsustainable pace.
Revisit Off-White’s SS20 menswear show below.
