Virgil Abloh is back with his Spring/ Summer 2019 line. He debuted his latest OFF-WHITE collection during Paris fashion week. And no, his buddy Kanye wasn’t in attendance. However, that didn’t stop him from putting on one his best shows to date.
The LV artistic director is known for his creativity and vision of bridging the gap with sportswear and high fashion, and this collection was no different. He’s not afraid to break barriers and push the fashion industry forward as a whole, and since an active lifestyle is becoming the norm amongst women, Virgil decided to design pieces using performance fabrics for his Nike Running and Nike Women debut.
On the runway, there were plenty of Nike-branded and co-designed pieces, fusing athletic silhouettes. He even had Olympic athletes walk the runway. Olympic High Jumper Vashti Cunningham walked the runway with supermodel Jourdan Dunn. Which is an example of bringing the two worlds together. I’d like to call it fashion and function.
There was a perfect mix of sportswear and high fashion. Athletic leggings, neon snakeskin print mini skirts and ruffle gowns. Can we say athletic couture?
In an interview with Vogue Paris regarding the asthetic of this seasons collection, Virgil said, “Essentially, it is femininity crashed against athletic apparel and sport. The juxtaposition is how you know something happened; that is the crash. There’s textures, there’s silhouettes. The shoes for example, I started with a very athletic shoe and crashed it into a very feminine high heel. Take the suiting: there’s a biker short, but in tailoring. That’s the crash in 3D. The end result is Off-White; it’s a metaphor.”
Virgil also expressed that it was very important to have real athletes walk in his show. He stated, “In my mind, the muse is the athlete. These Olympic athletes, they train for a living, they live in workout clothes. So I wanted to see what these clothes look like on real women who actually do that. I think it can extend out to the girl who likes to work out and loves athletic wear.”
What Virgil’s done in the fashion industry thus far is truly epic. Teaming up with Nike and collaborating with Serena Williams for her collection is just a taste of the genius he is as a designer.
But the real question is, are y’all going to stand in line for hours to cop those OFF-WHITE x Nike pieces?
[“Source-bet”]
