Virgil Abloh, a world-renowned designer who was praised as a 'genius designer', has died at the age of 41 after a battle with cancer.
Luxury brands LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) and Off White announced on the 28th local time that Abloh passed away.
LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement on the same day, "I am shocked that Virgil Abloh, a genius designer and visionary, with a beautiful soul and great wisdom, passed away."
Abloh's cause of death is cardiovascular sarcoma, a rare cancer that grows in the heart, and it is known that he has been fighting the disease since 2019.
The bereaved family said that since Abloh was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, he has received numerous treatments on his own, but he has not stopped working in art. "Abloh deeply believed in the power of art to inspire future generations."
An American of African descent from Ghana, Abloh is one of the most influential black people in the fashion world.
He is said to have learned to sew from his mother, who was a seamstress, with no formal training in fashion.
Abloh studied civil engineering at university and received a master's degree in architecture. Since 2009, Abloh has been involved in a variety of activities, including designing album covers and stages for American singer Kanye West.
After that, he began to walk the designer path as an intern at the fashion brand Fendi, and started living a full-fledged designer life when he founded the luxury streetwear brand Off-White in 2013.
Called the '21st century Karl Lagerfeld', Abloh presented a wide range of designs, not only in fashion, but also in Evian water bottles and Big Mac packaging boxes, IKEA furniture, and Mercedes-Benz vehicle designs.
In 2018, Abloh was appointed Louis Vuitton's first black artistic director and was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
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(Photo = Off White, Louis Vuitton Instagram capture)