When acclaimed designer and artist Virgil Abloh died unexpectedly in 2021, it was a huge blow to the world of fashion – and, more broadly, the world of culture. Even after Abloh’s death, however, projects he had been working on continued to see the light of day; there was also the matter of Off-White, the company he founded and which LVMH owned a stake in. But this week, that era came to an end with the news that LVMH had sold its holdings in Off-White to the company Bluestar Alliance.
What should we make of this? In an analysis of the deal at Puck, Lauren Sherman isn’t optimistic. An anonymous executive quoted in Puck offered a grim prediction: “Off-White will end up a mass-market, cheap product in a million categories.”
Sherman backs up this case with a few data points, noting that brand management companies have become more widespread in recent years — and that there’s a long history of such firms stepping in to take over once-storied fashion labels. “Licensing firms have profited from the misfortunes of mismanaged fashion businesses, taking fading household names and squeezing them for all their remnant value,” she writes.
Virgil Abloh, Acclaimed Menswear Designer, Dead at 41
He left a huge impact on the fashion worldAdmirers of Abloh’s work concerned about his legacy may be alarmed by this news. At Puck, Sherman also points to a very different place where Abloh’s aesthetic might be up for discussion: a forthcoming book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robin Givhan.
In the wake of Abloh’s death, Givhan revisited the significance of the late designer’s work at LVMH. “Abloh’s arrival registered like a thunderclap when he stepped onto one of the biggest stages at LVMH, which also owns Christian Dior, Celine and Givenchy. His young fan base cheered him on,” she wrote. With this week’s news, that era now seems conclusively over.
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