“Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh” is the new Assouline book to have
The new book on Virgil Abloh is released 360 pages dedicated to the vision of the creative director of the Maison Louis Vuitton, who passed away on November 28, 2021.
On September 15th the new Assouline book is released, celebrating the creative direction of Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton , the first volume entirely dedicated to the designer (published after his early death) who changed the vision of contemporary fashion. It is called "Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh" , a collection of 360 pages that retrace history and return the personal vision of the first African American designer who led the creative helm of the luxury Maison, starting a movement defined by diversity and emancipation. The volume is divided into 8 chapters, one for each collection and fashion show orchestrated by the menswear creative director and a catalog with all the sneakers he made for the French brand. "As a black creative with no formal training in fashion design, without a list of established fashion houses on his resume [...] Abloh saw himself as an infiltrator in high fashion: a true outsider who would become an innovative figure" . explained Anders Christian Madsen, author of the book and a close associate of Virgil during his time as Louis Vuitton's Men's Artistic Director from 2018-2021.
"There is no limit ... life is so short that you can't waste a day adhering to what someone thinks you can do instead of knowing what you can do." Virgil Abloh
Not only a research tool, coffee table book and but also a fetish and collectible object. The new book Assouline is loaded with the stylist's references: from the Wizard of Oz and James Baldwin to the hip hop style that characterized the Nineties helped build the vocabulary of Louis Vuitton 's creative director. Inside the book there are also images of people belonging to the designer's close community such as Nigo (current creative director of Kenzo with whom he launched a capsule collection at Louis Vuitton), Naomi Campbel, Luka Sabbat, Kid Cudi and Kendall Jenner. The title, interspersed with quotations from Virgil Abloh himself also called "Ablohism", is accompanied by in-depth captions that allow the reader to contextualize every phase of the stylist's history, both personal and professional, at Louis Vuitton. All the highlights of his journey at Louis Vuitton are included, such as his first campaign for the Maison; Shot by Inez & Vinoodh, with a three-year-old girl dressed in a Yellow Brick Road sweater from the spring-summer 2019 collection. And of course, Abloh's mastery in creating limited edition objects of desire that can be considered as art, such as the same invitations to the fashion shows that ranged from the glove that recalled his idol Michael Jackson, to the wooden airplane or the sets of board games.
The book at the price of 120 € is available with two versions of covers: one is an image taken from the Louis Vuitton spinoff show for spring summer 2022 in Miami, with the image of a child heading towards a red balloon, the other is a comic book by the artist and Reggieknow, who illustrated the characters (and also protagonists) of the collections “The Adventures of Zooom with Friends”. The book will also be available in an Ultimate Collection, packaged in a collector's box that references Virgil's use of shipping crates in the Spring-Summer 2021 collection. The Ultimate also features a special separate insert that serves as a compendium. for every single sneaker Virgil designed for Louis Vuitton, including this year's new Air Force 1.
