Off-White

Off-White was founded by Virgil Abloh in Milan in 2013, evolving out of his earlier project Pyrex Vision. Abloh — a Ghanaian-American architect by training who had worked closely with Kanye West as the creative director of DONDA — used Off-White as a thesis project for what he called 'the 3% approach': taking an existing object and shifting it just enough that the difference becomes the design. Quotation marks around words ('SCULPTURE', 'SHOELACES'), industrial zip ties on product, the diagonal stripe motif — all became immediately recognizable codes. The Air Jordan 1 collaboration with Nike in 2017 and the subsequent 'The Ten' project (ten reimagined Nike silhouettes) cemented Off-White's place at the intersection of streetwear and luxury. Abloh was appointed Louis Vuitton men's artistic director in 2018, the first Black designer in the role at a maison of that scale, while continuing to lead Off-White. He died of cardiac angiosarcoma in November 2021 at 41. Ib Kamara took over as art and image director after Abloh's passing. The brand continues to operate from Milan and continues to release within the codified vocabulary Abloh established — though the question of whether Off-White's cultural moment can extend without him will likely take another decade to answer.