The coming-of-age story unites the designer with his audience, and allows future generations to mirror themselves in his experience. At its root is his Boyhood Ideology®, the childlike sensibility observed throughout his Portefeuille Louis Vuitton Eugenie en toile monogram marron outlook of a child, who is yet to be affected by the preconceived ideas of Louis Vuitton Luco handbag in monogram canvas and natural leather scratch where clothes are clothes and humans are humans. To cement this methodology, he frames his shows in childlike whimsy: the 𝓛𝓸𝓾𝓲𝓼 louis vuitton sirius 55 travel bag in brown monogram canvas and natural leather of Collection 3, or the rainbow runway of Collection 1 where it all begins.

In his first campaign, for Collection 1, he reimagines Gustave Courbet’s The Painter’s Studio from 1855 in photographic form. The original work depicts Courbet working on a painting surrounded to his left by people from all levels of French society, and to his right by members of high society. Virgil Abloh’s contemporary perspective pictures himself fitting a look from the collection surrounded by members of his team, social circle, and models, each clad in the collection. Where Courbet’s painting interprets ‘real world’ society for the eyes of the cultural elite, Virgil Abloh portrays the all-encompassing exchange that defines his vision for Louis Vuitton pre-owned monogram Saumur 35 shoulder bag Les derniersères sacs Louis Vuitton Citadines mises en ligne.

After The Wizard of Oz, it had to be The Wiz. Inspired by the Oz adaptation that featured an all-Black cast, Collection 2 establishes the Black Imagination that will underpin Virgil Abloh’s every move at Louis Vuitton. Black Imagination denotes the rethinking and overturning of inherited and often unconscious expectations tied to Black identities Louis Vuitton Alma BB Bag 24cm Epi Leather Spring Summer Collection M57426 Black Ganebet Store the present and the future. Merging this premise with his Boyhood Louis Vuitton sac Olympe en toile monogram et cuir bordeaux 5 Louis Vuitton pre-owned monogram Odeon NM MM shoulder bag louis vuitton messenger bag in grey canvas and natural leather.

The puppets look like toys, but they are inspired by the West African wooden sculptures he grew up with as the son of Ghanaian immigrants. Throughout Collections 5, 6 and 7, his work begins to express a more personal nature. The Ghanaian flag, Kente cloth and West African silhouettes of his heritage take centre stage. He bases his film for Collection 6 on James Baldwin’s Stranger in the Village, examining the experience of being a Black artist in the birthplace of European art. He devotes Collection 7 to the Amen Break, a little-known drum break of a B-side created by the funk-soul group The Winstons in 1969, which would be sampled and go on to underpin the hip-hop and jungle genres, and splinter into thousands of the pop tracks most familiar to us today.

He uses his platform to elucidate the unsung universal influence of the hip-hop culture that nurtured him. He wants to contribute to a Black Canon: an abstract catalogue for the memory, reconstruction and preservation of the history of Black art on par with the way in European art is studied and taught. To Virgil Abloh, documenting his prolific output is always about posterity: preserving it so it might inspire future generations, and open the door he has kept ajar for the opportunities of Louis Vuitton 2005 pre-owned Damier Ebene ILovo PM shoulder bag with themes of time: the lifespan we are given to make a difference on this Earth.

Brown Canvas Louis Vuitton Bucket Bag the middle of the surrealist cloud-adorned show set stands a tree fitted Louis Vuitton Christie GM Light Green Vernis 8, in sky blue bags embellished with climbing holds, in the Grim Reaper cartoons he scatters on garments, and the kite-like structures that turn into human-sized angel wings. Like his beloved cityscapes by Giorgio de Louis Vuitton Marshmallow Monogram Vernis Port Feuille Vienoise French Purse Wallet, turn back time, or even make it come to a stop.

To Virgil Abloh, limitations are manmade. He imagines what Heaven on Earth might look like (Collection 4), interprets flowers as symbols of human diversity (Collections 3; 8), and finds civility in Parisian romanticism (Collections 2; 3; 8). He is passionate about surrealism, but his work is never as passive as escapism. At the core of his ethos is a genuine desire to confront the issues of the world, and he approaches that dream with fervent pragmatism. When rational solutions don’t seem to make the world a better place, he gives the opposite a shot.

For Collection 5, Virgil Abloh stages an entrancing, almost psychedelic parade and coins the exercise Hypnovisualism®. A decidedly irrational way of inspiring compassion in people through hallucinogenic displays of Louis Vuitton Marly handbag clutch in monogram canvas and natural leather Mind™. It is his way of sugar-coating social and political issues in pleasant layers of what he calls “nuance” – theatrics, amusement, poetry – and delivering his weightiest messages with a smile. Virgil Abloh sees that clothes can be used as tools for change, and decides to use every inch of his global platform to create something far beyond the realm of “fashion”.