Virgil Abloh, architect, designer, and men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton (Paris), died at the age of 41 after privately battling cancer for several years, according to an LVMH press release.
“We are all shocked after this terrible news. Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom. The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow, and we are all thinking of his loved ones after the passing of their husband, their father, their brother or their friend,” said Bernard Arnault, LVMH chairman and CEO.
For the launch of Abloh’s Fall/Winter 2019 Louis Vuitton Men’s Collection, print-service provider Brixen & Sons (Santa Ana, California) turned a vacant building in Chicago into an eye-catching pop-up location with screen-printed graphics.
In July of this year, LVMH acquired a majority stake in Off-White LLC, the apparel brand Abloh founded in 2013.
Born in Rockford, Illinois in 1980, Abloh was an artist, architect, engineer, creative director, and designer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology.