After taking a season off to restructure Off-White’s business model, today Virgil Abloh launched the brand’s spring/summer 2021 co-ed collection. Store drops start this week and continue throughout the season. But that wasn’t all Abloh had been working on. The collection – a nonconformist exercise in the fusion of traditional gender codes – premiered on Imaginary TV, Off-White’s new TV station available for streaming online from today onwards. Abloh’s programming kicked off with on-demand documentaries, performances and fashion show footage incorporating the new collection. Anders Christian Madsen spoke to Abloh about his new venture.
ACM: Virgil, are you actually launching a TV station?
VA: A runway show is not enough anymore. To me, it feels inadequate. To showcase what’s in my mind and how I see the world as being a better place – and through deliberation while working on Louis Vuitton and everything else that I do – I came up with this concept: what the world needs is TV. But, you know, from a fashion designer like me.
ACM: How did you come up with the idea?
VA: If I put a model in pants and a top, or sneakers and a dress, or another endless combination, it’s not enough for how steep 2020 was. I’m inspired by the times. What’s more powerful in the world today, media or garment? Today, the role of fashion designers is different than in the past. We’re media entities. I decided to launch Imaginary TV as the Off-White offering on it’s coming-of-age birthday.
ACM: What do you mean by that?
VA: I feel like it’s Off-White’s rite of passage. I’m no longer trying to explain why Off-White is valid and new. Now it talks to itself. I’m less trying to showcase to the establishment that a graphic t-shirt and a hoodie on a runway are a valid statement, or etcetera. I still believe in fashion brands, but I think they possess a bigger power than just what’s pre-described. I use my opportunity to disprove things that I previously believed, and hopefully uncover some new territory so someone younger can stand upon this.
VA: I feel like it’s Off-White’s rite of passage. I’m no longer trying to explain why Off-White is valid and new. Now it talks to itself. I’m less trying to showcase to the establishment that a graphic t-shirt and a hoodie on a runway are a valid statement, or etcetera. I still believe in fashion brands, but I think they possess a bigger power than just what’s pre-described. I use my opportunity to disprove things that I previously believed, and hopefully uncover some new territory so someone younger can stand upon this.
ACM: Why is the TV format right for this?
VA: What I’ve noticed this past year of “pausing” is that it’s very hard to pause. The most viewed content on the internet is within the first zero to fifteen seconds of a video. How wild is that fact? You get a metric: you can get a lot of views, but make it under fifteen seconds. And that’s quantified as ‘good’? Are people even reading anymore? I’m getting off the track of making things that are bite-sized. Imaginary TV is this deluge of content giving a platform for others. It’s meant to be slow and cumbersome.
ACM: What does “slow and cumbersome” entail?
VA: I want this to be a moment in which, if you follow Off-White, you’re into the meditativeness of it. You’re into more, you’re not into less. Imaginary TV is a discovery place. There are twenty different artists from across the world, who are showing their music, or how to make graffiti or painting and so on. It’s a performance art TV station.
ACM: Is Imaginary TV permanent?
VA: Yeah, I’ll continually add to it, to the life of the brand. It’s its own media place. It’s not just a thing of the moment. I’ve now found the media to speak from. It’s not just fashion week. It’s not just a date on the calendar. I can show something whenever I want.
ACM: TV networks are hugely powerful. What are your thoughts on TV culture today?
VA: We are living in one of the most polarising times of America. You realise that media and information are commodified, and in that junction, things go off the rail very fast. But I want to make the media I want to see instead: what I grew up off of, watching BET and MTV. It was super formative and I want to keep that feeling in things that I make, even though they’re modernised.
ACM: What will the future of Imaginary TV look like?
VA: It’s all on demand, but it will be constantly updated. I have ideas for different series I want to do, hosted by different talent. Talk shows, music shows, art shows, town halls… I’m even in the mind frame where, soon, I’ll be hosting other designers on the channel. It’s very much a generational idea. If a kid says, “Hey, I want to make a show about this”, who’s to say that they’re not the next leading voice?
ACM: It sounds like a big undertaking!
VA: I’m not content when things are just going great. That just makes me question why the current is going in this direction, and if there’s a waterfall at the end of it, or if it’s going to be another six hours of chill ride. I’m not comfortable driving around Paris in a black S-Class thinking I’m a designer. That makes me extremely anxious because it lulls you into disconnection. Then I’d rather walk to work and pass by real people!
VA: What I’ve noticed this past year of “pausing” is that it’s very hard to pause. The most viewed content on the internet is within the first zero to fifteen seconds of a video. How wild is that fact? You get a metric: you can get a lot of views, but make it under fifteen seconds. And that’s quantified as ‘good’? Are people even reading anymore? I’m getting off the track of making things that are bite-sized. Imaginary TV is this deluge of content giving a platform for others. It’s meant to be slow and cumbersome.
ACM: What does “slow and cumbersome” entail?
VA: I want this to be a moment in which, if you follow Off-White, you’re into the meditativeness of it. You’re into more, you’re not into less. Imaginary TV is a discovery place. There are twenty different artists from across the world, who are showing their music, or how to make graffiti or painting and so on. It’s a performance art TV station.
ACM: Is Imaginary TV permanent?
VA: Yeah, I’ll continually add to it, to the life of the brand. It’s its own media place. It’s not just a thing of the moment. I’ve now found the media to speak from. It’s not just fashion week. It’s not just a date on the calendar. I can show something whenever I want.
ACM: TV networks are hugely powerful. What are your thoughts on TV culture today?
VA: We are living in one of the most polarising times of America. You realise that media and information are commodified, and in that junction, things go off the rail very fast. But I want to make the media I want to see instead: what I grew up off of, watching BET and MTV. It was super formative and I want to keep that feeling in things that I make, even though they’re modernised.
ACM: What will the future of Imaginary TV look like?
VA: It’s all on demand, but it will be constantly updated. I have ideas for different series I want to do, hosted by different talent. Talk shows, music shows, art shows, town halls… I’m even in the mind frame where, soon, I’ll be hosting other designers on the channel. It’s very much a generational idea. If a kid says, “Hey, I want to make a show about this”, who’s to say that they’re not the next leading voice?
ACM: It sounds like a big undertaking!
VA: I’m not content when things are just going great. That just makes me question why the current is going in this direction, and if there’s a waterfall at the end of it, or if it’s going to be another six hours of chill ride. I’m not comfortable driving around Paris in a black S-Class thinking I’m a designer. That makes me extremely anxious because it lulls you into disconnection. Then I’d rather walk to work and pass by real people!
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