After a two-year struggle with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare illness, Virgil Abloh, the ground-breaking Black designer whose ascension to the top of the traditional luxury business altered what was possible in fashion, died on Sunday in Chicago. He was 41 years old at the time.
Abloh, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton men's wear and the founder of his own label, Off-White, was a frequent collaborator with outside brands such as Nike and Evian; he was a popular fashion theorist whose expansive and sometimes controversial approach to design drew comparisons to everyone from Andy Warhol to Jeff Koons.
According to the New York Times, Abloh changed what people wanted to wear by bridging the gap between hypebeast culture and the luxury sector and what brands desired in a designer — and the definition of 'fashion' itself.