Robin Givhan on how Virgil Abloh crashed the gates of culture

The first time Robin Givhan really took notice of Virgil Abloh, after seeing him floating around a bit at fashion week, was when he was nominated for the LVMH Prize in 2015. 

The designer was tucked away in his cubicle waiting to greet press and buyers, while close friend Kanye West hyped him up to anyone that passed by. “Kanye was sucking up a lot of the oxygen in the space, and I kept thinking ‘Move over so I can get to this guy, because this guy is doing something interesting,” she explains. “He was this very reserved figure sitting in the back of his cubicle, incredibly engaging and calm in the centre of the chaos.”

While Givhan found what Abloh was doing with Off-White and the way it took off interesting, she wasn’t sure that the clothes were actually all that good. Like many, the legendary Wall Street Journal fashion editor and critic questioned over and over whether Abloh could cut it as a designer or was actually just great at branding and marketing. 

Either way, she knew there was something really special about him, in the way he inspired a whole new generation of fashion fans – if an African-American man without fashion qualifications could make it to the top of Louis Vuitton, then maybe kids from the kind of backgrounds the industry usually shuts out could too. 

Now, close to four years after he tragically passed away aged just 41, Abloh’s whole story is told in a new book by Givhan. Make It Ours: Crashing The Gates of Culture charts his rise from the scrappy days of Pyrex Vision, to the inception of Off-White, to his appointment at LV in 2018, with contributions from iconic Factory Records designer Peter Saville, former Bottega Veneta creative director Edward Buchanan, and wife Shannon.

While Givhan remains measured throughout – her relationship with Abloh was friendly, but strictly professional across the years they knew each other – for fans of Abloh, the book is a celebration and a stark reminder of everything he achieved in fashion, and the ways in which he changed it, in such a short flash of time. Abloh once said that everything he did was for his 17 year-old self. Make It Ours will surely go some way to inspiring a whole new swathe of teens.

Hey Robin! So first of all, tell me about the first time you ever came across Virgil, and your earliest initial impressions of him and his work?

Robin Givhan: It’s funny because I asked this very same question to people as I was writing the book. Several of them laughed and said they couldn’t remember how they first met Virgil or recalled that it had something to do with Kanye. I think in some ways it’s the same for me. 

I became aware of who Virgil was when he was turning up in the audience at fashion shows, but I didn't really have this searing memory of him. That is, until the encounter that I had when he was a semifinalist for the LVMH prize. I had seen some of his work at Off-White, but that was the first time that I really had a chance to interact with him in a substantial way. And what I remember is that in the chaos of one of those LVMH prize scenes, he was this reserved figure in the back of his little cubicle. 

At the front of it, his hype man Kanye was there, sucking up a lot of the oxygen in this space. I kept thinking, ‘Move over so I can get to this guy’, because this guy is doing something interesting. This is the man of the hour. This is the person that I really want to talk to. Virgil was just incredibly engaging and very calm in the centre of this chaos.

When you look at a t-shirt, it’s just a t-shirt – although the Olsen sisters would probably disagree – Robin Givhan

How did you feel about Virgil’s clothes initially, and then the ways in which they developed as his career continued?

Robin Givhan: I, as a critic during that time, was definitely of the mind that the clothes were sort of mediocre and that he had not added much to the fashion vocabulary, in terms of the garments themselves. When I think of really significant designers, I’m usually able to pinpoint a moment when they created a collection that was game changing and shifted the fashion trajectory a little bit, or a garment that really came to signify their sensibility. 

I never felt that Virgil’s clothing ever really did that. Some pieces were cool and fun – the varsity jackets, the jean jackets that had the hazard guidelines and the Xs and all of that. The markings were really distinctive. But I didn’t think that the garments themselves stood apart from the whole spectrum of what was then considered streetwear. Instead, what fascinated me was the passion that so many of his fans brought to any kind of experience with Virgil and Off-White. Clearly, he was providing them with something that was a lot more than just a varsity jacket.

On that, is there any other designer that you’ve seen whose fan base is so engaged and inspired by?

Robin Givhan: I think you could say the same thing for a brand like Supreme – it’s all about the name and the methods of acquiring a Supreme garment. But when you look at a t-shirt, it’s just a t-shirt – although the Olsen sisters would probably disagree. In many ways, some of the designers who came out of the world of streetwear fit into that same mold wherein it’s not about the t-shirt itself but the affiliation that the t-shirt signals. It’s akin to fashion taking a page from the world of sports, right? It's not about the jersey, but about which team's name is on the jersey.

How did Virgil take your criticism and build on it? I feel like he was open in a way that a lot of designers are not – we’ve all heard stories about people being banned from shows because they wrote less than glowing reviews…

Robin Givhan: I strive very hard to make sure that the criticism is not personal and that it's strictly about the work. But I would say that Virgil really did well – he had this ability to let criticism not so much roll off his back, but to engage with it in a very intellectual way, as opposed to an emotional way. He certainly may have gone home and pounded the table in private, I don't know. I certainly was struck by that after many, many seasons of pretty tough criticism about the collections. 

During COVID-19, he was talking to some of the students who were part of his scholarship project, and I had the pleasure of leading that conversation. We had had a chance to talk a little bit before that, and there was no animosity at all. He had this ethos that made it much easier for him to not get mired in the criticism. It’s the idea that everything that you're putting out doesn't have to be perfect, that it's all part of a process of continuing to explore and to get better. And so the criticism, in fact, was never really about the end product but only about a particular moment along the way. This ethos allowed the criticism to just sort of bounce off of him.

It’s been a few years since he passed and obviously you’ve written a book now. Did you ever have a favourite Virgil show, or do you have one that you've looked back upon, maybe throughout this process, and changed your mind about?

Robin Givhan: Honestly, I would say it would have been that first show for Vuitton, which in many ways was a charming and light-hearted show. I think that it was also a really powerful display of what leaning into optimism and possibility can do for you. Virgil never came across as naive or unable to see the challenges of what he was trying to do. At one point, he said to me, ‘I choose optimism’, and I think that's such a powerful stance to take. Particularly looking at the world now, that collection resonates with me, and some of the sweetness that I thought was there – and at the time found a bit too saccharine – I now see as more of a power play.

When Virgil got the post, people were so excited, but a couple of the stories, in the exuberance of it all, forgot that Virgil wasn’t the first Black designer at a European luxury house – Robin Givhan

How did the book itself come about?  Was it something you actively wanted to write, or did the publishing house come to you?

Robin Givhan: It was a bit of both. Several people had asked if I had considered writing a book about Virgil, and my answer to them had been no. But then I certainly was captivated by the breadth of the reaction when he died. I found the tension between my criticism and the passion of his fans interesting to explore. I was also curious about the context that allowed his career to kind of take off at such a speed.

And what did you find there? 

Robin Givhan: It’s one of the reasons for the chapter that goes back and looks at Ozwald Boateng and Edward Buchanan. When Virgil got the post, people were so excited, but a couple of the stories, in the exuberance of it all, forgot that Virgil wasn’t the first Black designer at a European luxury house. I remember when Oswald was appointed and that it was certainly announced with great fanfare, but the reaction was nothing like the reaction when Virgil was appointed. And I wondered why? What were the circumstances that were different? Was it something different about Virgil? Or has people’s engagement with fashion at that level changed in some way? Or did they feel a more intimate connection to Virgil? And if they did, what made that possible? 

This all happened in the world of menswear, and it happened specifically at Vuitton, was there something special about menswear? Is there something that prevents it or makes it much more difficult for it to happen in the world of womenswear? So I started thinking about the defining features of menswear at this time, along with the impact of sneaker and street culture on the whole industry. Also, many people pointed out that Virgil was so nice - did ‘nice’ have something to do with it as well?

Was it an emotional thing for you to write, or did you feel removed from it? I cried a lot reading it, because I think it still feels like such a massive loss that Virgil is gone. 

Robin Givhan: I truly believe, and I hope, that there’s another book out there to be written by a close friend who can really tell that part of Virgil's story. My relationship with him was strictly professional which allowed me to have an arm's distance from a lot of it, and that was really helpful in writing about his work. 

It was sad this his life was cut so short at a moment when I think his work was becoming, to me, more nuanced and more intriguing. Any person that is just starting to come into their creativity – their loss is heightened by that sense of what could have been. 

But if there was an emotional moment for me, it was in thinking about how Virgil would have responded to the current moment, certainly in the States. As he grappled with the expectations of someone in his position, with his notoriety in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests and the racial justice protests, I wondered, what would he be saying now? Would he be thinking about himself as a Black man of prominence in a different way? Would he still be able to be as chill, kind and patient? I have no answers to those questions but I think it's sad that we don't get to see that next chapter in Virgil's life.

Given everything that's happening – the economic downturn and the fact that fashion houses and conglomerates are massively struggling right now – do you think LVMH would have taken the chance on Virgil at LV if the job opened up today? 

Robin Givhan: I do. It certainly depends on the tact of a CEO, but I do think that when things are tough, the way to pull out of them is to do something that is game changing, as opposed to doing something safe. Virgil was not considered a safe choice, so yes, I can actually see LVMH choosing Virgil even now. 

That said, I feel like fashion’s patience for designers just keeps getting shorter and shorter. That sounds impossible because it already seems like designers had approximately five seconds to get to a house and prove themselves. But I do think that it would have been possible today, because the same customers are still out there needing to be reached. The customer base is not getting any less diverse. Menswear isn't losing its power and its impact, and people are still looking for ways to connect with each other in some sort of way.

One of the things that was really surprising to me was the degree to which so many of the designers of [Abloh’s] generation were connected in some way – Robin Givhan

Like many who covered Virgil extensively throughout his career, you must have known his story pretty much inside and out. Was there anything you uncovered while you were researching and writing the book that really surprised you?

Robin Givhan: I actually didn’t know his story inside and out! Only because he really started in menswear and I wasn’t closely following that part of the business as closely as I was following the women’s. So he came into my peripheral vision, and then he came into the centre of it once he started doing womenswear. 

One of the things that was really surprising to me was the degree to which so many of the designers of his generation were connected in some way. All of them, at some point, had done some kind of collaboration or conversation with Kanye via Virgil, and I was fascinated by the sense of community. 

I’m always drawn to the culture of things and people, and so I was also really intrigued by the thinking amongst the children of recent African immigrants.

How so? 

Robin Givhan: In the States and even in general, when people referred to Virgil, they always said he’s the son of Ghanaian immigrants. They didn’t just refer to him as African-American, which would also have been true. I wanted to explore what that really meant. There is a different sensibility that comes out of having parents who have recently come to a country, but also Black parents who have made a conscious decision to come to the States. 

It separates you a bit from the history of American slavery and all of its complicated residue. It gives you a greater sense of your own power because you are deeply rooted in your own history, it hasn’t been blurred or erased. There’s always been a bit of tension between recent Black immigrants and those whose roots are embedded in American slavery, there is a sense of hierarchical distance that distinguishes them, and thatÆs really powerful.

Someone said to me that when you have that sense of what it’s like to move in a world where everyone at every level of society looks like you - whether they’re driving a cab or leading a country - it gives you this deeply ingrained, almost unconscious understanding that that entire range of possibility is also open to you.

Virgil was such a champion for young designers and was so open to collaborating with them. Is there anything that you think he would have been really inspired by at the moment, or that you feel is kind of continuing his legacy in some way?

Robin Givhan: He would have been inspired by the students who are part of the Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholarship that's administered by the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF). These students come from such a wide range of backgrounds – some from the traditional fashion schools, and others from schools that don't have fashion programs.

I’ve been to that ceremony probably three times now and each time, it's been amazing. They're [students] so young, enthusiastic and just full of possibilities. You can't not be delighted and inspired by them. Their creativity is boundless and I love that. It’s so in line with Virgil’s way of thinking and engaging with younger people.