Black Fashion Designers FIT Exhibit: Virgil Abloh’s Off White

When visiting the Black Fashion Designers exhibit at FIT, I was drawn to this piece from Virgil Abloh’s brand Off White. Abloh named his brand Off White because he “did not want to identify his customer as either black or white”. The garment is a dusty rose ensemble with rope detailing. The museum plaque for this piece quotes Abloh who says,”Streetwear is seen as cheap…my goal is to add an intellectual layer to it and make it credible.” I think this is a relevant collection to display at this exhibit because it addresses the stereotypes of race as well as street fashion being perceived as cheap. In the lecture Elizabeth Way,the guest speaker and curator of the exhibit, talked about a designer who questioned if his collection was being described as street or if he was. I think that the same idea is brought up in this garment and also in Abloh’s brand in general where he struggles on how to identify pieces of the collection because of certain stereotypes. Abloh makes an impact in the fashion industry by trying to change our views and opinions about what we consider to be street fashion by creating a brand that floats between runway and street style. He makes powerful metaphors in his garments such as using the ropes in the jacket and the boots which are supposed to represent “climbing the corporate ladder.” His subtle challenging of the industry’s views about race and fashion in general have impacted how the industry saw streetwear.

Virgil Abloh,”Off-White” Ensemble, Italy (Fall 2015)