“I Come Under The Microscope A Lot”: Virgil Abloh On His $1 Million Scholarship & Latest Louis Vuitton Collection

Fashion is currently undergoing a seismic shift. As the mechanics that have long defined our industry have been forcibly paused due to coronavirus, and the global anti-racism movement has spotlit the systemic inequalities underpinning its glorious sheen, there has been somewhat of a reckoning. While recent years have seen the visible face of the industry evolve towards reflecting the world we live in, the same diversity is yet to manifest behind the scenes. “In the tone of 2020, I come under the microscope a lot,” smiles Virgil Abloh over Zoom from his Paris studio. “That same microscope doesn’t focus on others. But that’s the way the chips have landed.”

It’s a curious phenomenon. While many in this industry were slow to comment on the Black Lives Matter movement, and remain slower still to implement change, Abloh – by his own admission, “one of very few Black designers in Paris” – has sometimes come under fire for what has been perceived to be a lack of action towards making progress in the sphere of diversity. He has regularly described his role at Louis Vuitton as a sort of Trojan Horse: to imbue his output with the work and perspective of black creatives rather than explicitly narrate his personal experience of race – but clearly that hasn’t been enough for the world at large. “I’m not gonna go back to business as usual and pretend that the awakenings that we’re still in the midst of aren’t happening,” he says. “I didn’t take it lightly before but I think that, because my voice wasn’t distinct and loud enough, it didn’t resonate. To me, it’s always existed in my work for those who look at my work… But, since so many people wanna know more: here. Caveat: it’s on my terms.”

He’s referring both to the $1 million scholarship fund and accompanying mentorship programme that he has announced today for Black college students (alongside a personal donation, he has raised funds from his wealth of corporate partners), and the film that he is launching tomorrow as a prequel to this season’s Louis Vuitton presentations. That film – a half-cartoon, half-reality short created by LA collective Black Anime – reflects the spirit of Paris seen through Abloh’s eyes: of the “colourful rascals [who] swept through the city’s gilded salons” when he was appointed artistic director at the house, harnessing the unbridled enthusiasm that colours both his Louis Vuitton collections and wide-eyed approach to the world. It’s an all-Black team who have both filmed and scored it, something he expressly points out for the first time in the years that I’ve discussed projects with him, and he describes it as telling the story of his own “motley tribe, an Avengers kind of crew,” and the two years they have spent navigating the internal machinations of the ivory tower.

In the film, members of the team are packing the trunks which will be shipped around the world for a travelling series of Spring/Summer 2021 shows (the first of which will be held in Shanghai next month), while a series of animated characters (created by underground Chicago legend Reggieknow) are shown “turning tradition on its head, painting the town and the hallowed halls of Asnières” by setting sound systems up in the streets and playing guitar on the banks of the Seine. It’s lovely, and weird, and analogous to the boyish spirit he has imbued his Louis Vuitton with thus far. “I’m going into fashion week saying, here’s a scholarship fund,’ which is more important than my own career,” he says. “And that’s debuting at the same time as my next offering for Louis Vuitton, which is Black creatives.”

That scholarship fund, managed in partnership with nonprofit organisation Fashion Scholarship Fund, is designed to “pass the baton”, Abloh explains. “I looked at my path: how did I make it from where I started, which was hanging out with friends on the corner, going to parties, being into streetwear and making a T-shirt, to landing at the head of the house. This is forever, it’s not for 2020. It’s my commitment to fostering change and keeping the door open. I’m trying to speak to the 17-year-old version of myself.” But what Abloh is expressing now is reflected in the spirit of his output thus far; it was only two years ago that he burst into tears at the end of his debut rainbow runway, overwhelmed that he’d proved that people who looked like him could stand at the end of it rather than just appearing on moodboards backstage, and later explained, “It wasn’t me on the runway; it was the community. The only reason I come out there is so that kids will see what’s behind it.” This isn’t new messaging, it’s just more explicitly writ. “What’s amazing for me is that I don’t have to reprogramme,” he says. “But my volume can go up.” And, if there’s one thing we know about this year, it’s that the world will be listening.