On the second day of Paris Fashion Week, the Off-White runway show has taken place. It was in honor of the brand founder Virgil Abloh, who passed away in November 2021.
Virgil Abloh was the first black creative director of a French fashion mason, Louis Vuitton; also, he was nominated as one of the 100 most influence person by the Time journal. In 2019 he became member of board of directors of Council of Fashion Designers of America, which primary goal is to promote and safeguard the american fashion industry.
Moreover, he played a big role in the music industry, along with his friends Kanye West and Jay-z, working as an artistic director and thanks to it, he received a Grammy nomination in 2011.
He died for cancer on the 28th November 2021 in Chicago, leaving behind him a massive amount of love and creativity.
THE SHOW
The show represented a big step for Off-White, after Virgil's death; it announced a new high fashion line, called Than a Bride, its first makeup line, of which launch is arranged for spring, and last a collaboration with Church's.
This show included not just Off-White’s fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection, but also a new high fashion line. The show program explained: “designed by Virgil and completed by the creative teams and collaborators with whom he worked.”
The first part of the event was dedicated to the ready-to-wear collection. The looks were giving street style vibes with some fashion elevated details, such as long dresses, bags and horse-riding helmet. In the first part of the show, models w ere wearing from skiwear outfits, chic warm dresses with skiboots, to sparklying mini dresses and classic men sets with leather bags.
Closing it Serena Williams has walked wearing a turtleneck purple dress with printed leggings and shirt.
The second part was about Haute-couture. Bella Hadid opened the runway wearing a white voluminous dress, with sneakers and a rapper hat in reverse. Then followed many old supermodels and others of our generation, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, with her daughter Kaia Gerber, Karlie Kloss, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and also two Victoria's Secret angels Candice Swanepoel and Lais Ribeiro. Kendall Jenner worn a mini sparklying black dress, with black knee high boots and a hat, while Kaia Gerber worn a yellow t-shirt, with a short voluminous light blue skirt. Each of the 28 high fashion looks was extensively annotated, not only with the number of hours dedicated to make the dresses come in real, but with little backstories. Which is far more meaningful. There was an ode to his friend Sarah Jessica Parker, Carrie Bradshaw in the tv series Sex and the City, complete with an enormous shopping bag. Also, a never worn 2020 Met Gala dress for Kylie Jenner appeared. Finally, there there was a more serious message about the disease Abloh kept private, in Cindy Crawford’s two handbags: one printed with MORE LIFE and another full of red and white pill capsules.
In the crowd there were Rihanna with A$AP Rocky, Oliver Rousting, Fai Khadra and two italian celebrities, Mahmood and Blanco.
All of us are questioning now, “what will come next?“ and “what innovations will Off-White bring without Virgil Abloh?”, but what we all know already is that the creativity and the joy he has brought since he found the brand will be seen in the collections. Let's wait and see what the future is!
Images: @bellahadid
@serenawilliams
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