The American designer and entrepreneur Virgil Abloh is dead. He died at the age of 41 of complications from cancer.
This was announced by Louis Vuitton and Off-White.
Abloh was a designer for both brands.
He was the first black American to take on the artistic direction of a French luxury fashion house.
He founded the Milan-based label Off-White himself and ran it until the end.
In 2018 he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by American Time Magazine.
Together with the Swedish furniture manufacturer Ikea, he also launched his own and extremely successful collection called Markerad two years ago.
It means something like “clear and precise”.
Abloh was actually an architect and came to fashion through an internship at the traditional Italian label Fendi in Rome, which he did together with Kanye West in 2009.
The two then entered into an artistic partnership.
Abloh was born in Rockford, Illinois and is the son of Ghanaian immigrants.