Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh makes suit and tie the stuff of streetwear with edgy Off-White Paris show
The brand’s African-American designer took his scissors to the business suit at Paris Fashion Week, and sent rappers Offset and Playboi Carti down the runway
Having hogged the headlines throughout the last Paris men’s fashion week, Louis Vuitton’s streetwear supremo Virgil Abloh attempted to repeat the trick on Wednesday, by giving the suit and tie a millennial makeover.
Having set Instagram alight by sending out Michael Jackson-style sparkly white gloves as invitations for his Louis Vuitton show, the American designer took his scissors to the business suit in his own Off-White label show.
With rappers Offset and Playboi Carti on the catwalk modelling massive puffer coats, and a further posse of hip hop stars on the front row, Abloh, the only African-American in charge of a big brand, set out to prove that there was more to him than street culture.
“I zig while I zag,” the one-time architect, civil engineer, DJ, artist and all-round renaissance man told reporters afterwards.
“If you look at how I am depicted, I am always the streetwear guy, but that is only part of the surface level. In culture you are supposed to lead,” Abloh added.
