Black Men in History Series: Virgil Abloh

Courtesy of IKEA

Popcorn. Nope. Peanut butter. Not hardly.

I wanted to highlight Black Men in history no matter if what they did was a century ago or a month ago. All of them have inspired me in one way or another and have a unique place in history.

First off is the Genius of Virgil Abloh. Virgil is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, artist, and DJ.

He was born on September 30th 1980 in Rockford, Illinois to Ghanaian immigrant parents. Although he would go on to make a name for himself in fashion and creative design, he actually has a bachelor's and a master's degree in Architecture.

Virgil is married to wife Shannon, has two children, and lives in Chicago Illinois.

He entered the world of international fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009 alongside now longtime friend, Kanye West. In 2011, he was asked by Kanye to serve as the artistic director for the "Watch the Throne" album.

Virgil founded his 1st fashion house in 2013 with the high end brand, Off-White. Off-White is often identified Obloh's use of quotation marks, zip ties, capital letters, and barricade tape. It has become a wildly popular and successful international brand.

In 2017, he was asked to design a new collection for Nike called "The Ten", where he redesigned the companies ten best selling shoes. One of those shoes, "Air Jordan" won 2017's shoe of the year.

Virgil Abloh was the 1st American of African descent to be artistic director luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton.

He was named by Time magazine as one the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018.

Virgil also partnered up with IKEA to design furniture for apartments and houses. The partnership was a hit with Abloh's designs flying off shelves.

He also is an accomplished DJ playing shows internationally and a DJ residency at Las Vegas Wynn's XS Nightclub.

In 2019, Virgil was nominated for Menswear Designer of the year.

Please help me celebrate and salute the Black Man making history Virgil Abloh!

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