The late Virgil Abloh’s Off-White show opens Paris AW 2022 Fashion Week
Posted on Monday, March 7, 2022 — 1 comment
The late Virgil Abloh’s Off-White instalment opened Paris autumn-winter 2022 fashion week and can only be described as “a poignant realisation of the hard work Abloh delivered in the final stages of his life” (The Guardian, 2022). The event was live-streamed in almost 100 French Off-White stores from which his audience were able to experience and appreciate his personal touch in every detail of the collection.
Spaceship Earth: An “Imaginary Experience”
The show was set in Paris’ former stock exchange which served as a catalyst in bringing distinct cultures together. This theme was present in every element of the show from the replica of the historic Hotel Majestic chandelier (a symbol of the Parisian establishment Virgil infiltrated and occasionally trolled) facing a wall of speakers, to the choice of the models who walked the runway. Supermodel and sporting royalty of the 80s,90s and 00s including Serena Williams, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen walked alongside supermodels and cultural icons of the moment including Gigi Hadid, Kaia Gerber, and Adut Akech.
This meeting of contrasting worlds continued in the intertwined and oddly complementary themes running through the two collections: ready-to-wear and a new, couture-like, high fashion line which had been 'designed by Virgil and completed by the creative teams and collaborators with whom he worked'.
Ready-to-wear
Appropriately, the show opened with Virgil’s final ready-to-wear collection for women and men. In this collection, and all before, Virgil flipped the fashion pyramid (haute couture> aspirational> accessible luxury> premium> mass market) on its head as what he brought to the fashion industry came from the street. He took the most authentic way he knew how to dress and made it high fashion.
An Exploration of Sexiness
This ode to Y2K was displayed through minidresses with his signature tongue-in-cheek 'quote' phrases printed down the length, thongs poking out of low-rise jeans and high slits.
Men’s tailoring reimagined
Lines and volumes typically associated with skate fashion, canvas shell jackets and graffiti jacquard were all also present throughout the collection.