The American stylist arrival to the court of Louis Vuitton certainly does not catch us unawares, leaks and rumors have been about it for months. Even his predecessor Kim Jones left obvious clues on social networks few days before the official announcement. The news generated opinions on web and the public has already let go of the forecasts on the future of the French fashion house. Why did Vuitton choose Virgil Abloh? How much will this event affect the fashion industry?
Coincidences do not exist, especially in fashion. Louis Vuitton clearly declared last year that he wanted to dedicate (partly at least) itself to streetwear and the collaboration with Supreme was the confirm. Needing new customers and keeping up with the times has led the French brand to have to adapt to customer requests showing a situation that perfectly reflects today's society and that consequently reflects in Virgil Abloh.
The overall success of the American architect has been welcomed by most of the great designers. His contribution to fashion has changed the conception that the public has of it. Fashion is no longer about cutting-edge materials or extreme and futuristic design, it is now made through artist's hype. Virgil Abloh is not a designer but this is not important: his background and sociopolitical themes behind Off White allow him to express himself more than others have already managed to and the audience that he has attracted can not go unnoticed, also Vuitton understood it too.
But the move can be a double-edge sword: from artistically productive it can become sterile and unproductive. Capitalizing on a certainty as Abloh can bring a lot of income to the french house (and it certainly will), but there’s an high risk of not obtaining the desired results as well. Fashion is a creative industry and creative effort has always been a prerogative of it. The abuse of hype could turn out to not only making ideas of Virgil into monotonous and repetitive (this has already been stated in the past) but also damaging high fashion and streetwear, which would be both in a 'limbo' of hybrid products not appreciated by the street community nor by luxury lovers.
We never doubt the success of such an acclaimed artist, but now it will only be up to Virgil Abloh to demonstrate how much he can still give to fashion world.
