Virgil Abloh
Fashion and music are two great artistic forms that can be molded by the youth culture - our taste and our passion for evolving things in our limited time on earth allows us to look at things with fresh eyes.Collection: Great
I don't have the patience to be a non-creator.Collection: Patience
I look at culture, and I see what the kids around me are wearing, and I see a particular style. I understand the space between fashion and streetwear.Collection: Space
Art is made in hindsight.Collection: Art
For me, as I was growing up, I studied architecture, I was into music, and I always felt that there was a gap between the things that I loved and consumed and who made them and how they made them.Collection: Architecture
I'd do anything at the right time, and I would also do things at the wrong time if they felt right.Collection: Time
My lifestyle doesn't really account for movies. I can't even remember what I last saw.Collection: Movies
DJing is my only peace of mind. When the phone is off, I play my favourite songs really loud for myself, and I'm not talking to anyone; I'm not managing anything. It's just, like, a time when I can listen to music.Collection: Peace
My dad is a Ghanaian immigrant, and he wanted a son who was an engineer.Collection: Dad
I started off as a kid who didn't care what my education was.Collection: Education
Kanye's the best. He really, really is. He's cool. And why we've always gotten along is because we can just sit down and talk about art.Collection: Cool
My graphic design skills are superior to a lot of other things I can do; I use it as a part of my tool kit.Collection: Design
Music needs a visual element to make it tangible. So, naturally, there's gonna be a synergy between high-level art direction and high-level albums.Collection: Music
When creativity melds together with global issues, I believe you can bring the world together.
The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other, and that's how you create things that are totally new.
Everything I do references something that influenced me.
I'm always trying to prove to my 17-year-old self that I can do creative things I thought weren't possible.
I don't have to choose between high fashion or streetwear. My brand reminds me that it doesn't have to fit in a box. It can just be in a gray area.
I'm not really into style. I'm more into confidence or having something to say.
Ironic things are interesting.
In my case, everything starts from Marcel Duchamp and the new expressive possibilities he gave us with his ready-mades. I transferred his artistic language into today's world, choosing, for example, to use pedestrian-crossing stripes as a symbol.
The most valuable thing in culture is to find something first - so everyone is always looking.
I do fashion to tell a narrative.
I don't play golf.
Big teams are absolutely vital if you want to achieve certain results when you're working on larger scales, both in terms of physical size and productive quantities.
I don't sleep as much as normal people do.
Graphic tees are vibes. And I think they're the basis of a lot of wardrobes, but that makes it challenging to distill what you're brand means within a T-shirt.
My style is to never say no.
If you look at why people become wack as they get older, it's because they stop doing the things they did that were formative to their work. You can't mentally stay still. You can't not challenge yourself.
To me, graphic T-shirts are the most important and most expressive format for a designer or a person. Your taste in graphic tees says a lot about your point of view.
I pride myself in collaborating and being a creative director, and creative direction isn't putting my opinion first. It's supporting an artist so they get the most out of the project.
People that are able to think in terms of concepts and offer us valuable forms of art are very exciting to me.
There's a part of me that's trying to represent kids that don't necessarily have the same outlet that I have. I'm not looking towards a new demographic. I'm looking towards the demographic I came from.
I believe in the romantic interchange between intellectuals about fashion.
I just wanna start a brand that inspires and is geared towards youth.
Growing up, at high school, we all used to wear Champion garments, which, in America, are standard-issue gym uniforms.
Kanye looks for the best in everything.
I think that, in a digital age, album covers are becoming a lost art.
Murakami's ability to deconstruct and his aesthetic and conceptual freedom have been totally inspiring for me.
I try to talk on the phone as little as possible.
The concept with Off-White is that I have no ideal target. It's more about trying to make something for everyone. And I think that's what helps make it unique. That there isn't a specific muse.
People, when they say 'streetwear,' they miss the central component, which is that it's real people; it's clothes that are worn on the street.
I think my original ambition was to be an artist.
Criticism doesn't worry me.
The amount of random conversations that lead to culture-shifting ideas is insane.
Every idea that comes to mind I execute, or I look for outlets to put out ideas.
I like to look at fashion and relate it to the time when it was happening.
The most important message is to let me just focus on making the most beautiful normcore clothes, but as luxurious as possible.
'Creative director' is a catchall phrase for giving ideas. To me, it obviously means more than that. It's like being a counselor.
There's no line between a designer and consumer.