Virgil Abloh’s Contemporary Discourse: An Academic Approach to His Communication Strategies

This paper aims to document Virgil Abloh’s approach to fashion through his own words. Abloh defines himself as an engineer, architect, DJ, and designer, thus embodying the figure of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary contemporary artist. Since he built his luxury streetwear brand on social media and worked his way up until being named Louis Vuitton’s menswear creative director in 2018, he has challenged the structure of the fashion industry on many levels. Therefore, he is loved and criticized by many in equal parts, and his story has problematized how fashion is defined and understood today. Still, it is his views on design, education, and social justice that characterize him. Consequently, it is by examining his career path through his design work, exhibitions, lectures, and media coverage—which will be treated as primary sources of study—that this paper takes an in-depth look into his creative process and the intentions, hopes, and mission behind it. Ultimately, Virgil Abloh will be considered in this paper as a contemporary phenomenon whose work and words can help understand how fashion communication works today, being the final purpose of this paper to contribute to the consolidation of fashion studies as an academic field.