Prior to his passing in 2021 at the age of 41, Virgil Abloh was frequently described as the most influential fashion designer of his generation. Not necessarily the most technical—far from it. Even during his tenure at Louis Vuitton, where he made history as the pioneering Black designer to oversee the label's menswear in 2018, he preferred T-shirt designs over structured garments. But as a mainstream-savvy multitalented creator who approached fashion with a youthful zeal, his high-low approach to streetwear sought to make accessible the rarefied world of fashion to aspiring creatives like him who had long been overlooked, whether he was putting his stamp on premium handbags or £8,000 bags.
Pop-culture polymath … photograph of Virgil Abloh.
The magnitude of his legacy on design cannot quantified in material objects, but The Codes exhibition, the premier display dedicated solely to the deceased fashion designer's massive 20,000-item archive, reveals that he was as much a voracious collector of artifacts—the so-called codes—as he was a maker of them.
Organized by Abloh's partners Chloe and Mahfuz Sultan along with his widow, Shannon, this two-storey exhibition uses his personal effects to illustrate his evolution from the son of African-born family in Illinois to designer, brand strategist, DJ, and ultimately one of the leading designers in the world.
The setup is like a thrift store. Large piles of stacked Off-White T-shirts and sneaker partnerships sit alongside paintbrushes, scissors, and old computers. A pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s have been turned inside out, while one of his designer bags marked with the word “sculpture” (quotation marks were one of his signature touches) rests solitarily on a stool.
The more engaging installations include his workspace at Louis Vuitton (he notoriously referred to his phone as his desk) and a full-size DJ booth; proof of his wide appeal, coming of age in Illinois in the early 2000s, his stage name back then was Flat White.
The labeling is minimal, and while some of the more enigmatic pieces—multiple USB sticks and mixtapes in showcases—will only make sense to his diehard fans, it is a intriguing look into the thought process of a late millennial growing up in a capitalist world before TikTok.
A lot to take in … various objects on display at Virgil Abloh: The Codes.
At times it can feel a lot, but the structured layout is also how Abloh functioned. He would capture his discussions with journalists on audio files which he kept in order to revisit and pore over as his work progressed. The tapes are likely among the unshown items still in holding which—based on the response and queues outside—will probably see the light of day in future exhibitions.
Abloh's period at Louis Vuitton was very successful but it was his partnerships with worldwide companies which transcended the appeal of his fashion design, treating each product—a Rimowa suitcase, a athletic shoe, the previously mentioned Evian bottles—as if he was sampling a song. This originated from his “3% theory”—the idea that you could develop a original piece by changing an existing by just 3%.
Debuting for just 10 days during Paris fashion week at the prestigious venue—limited availability was a very Ablohian strategy—the organized crowds outside on its first day suggest it wasn't simply the hottest ticket in town, but that it was absurd to think that Abloh's legacy would simply vanish from the industry's momentum after his death.
