It was the first Off-White show not designed by Virgil Abloh
In an unassuming venue on the western edge of Paris, a box painted in a deep Klein Blue-ish blue framed the first Off-White collection conceived without the artistic direction of Virgil Abloh. After his death in November 2021, Ibrahim Kamara – who served as stylist on the late designer’s Off-White shows – was appointed “Image and Art Director” of the brand co-owned by Abloh’s Estate and LVMH. Inside the blue box, dancers dressed and painted in the same colour emerged from a cube and performed a ritual dance choreographed by Nicolas Huchard as models made their way around the edges of the box wearing Kamara’s debut collection.
Ibrahim Kamara dedicated the collection to his and Abloh’s shared roots
“It’s funny; we are both West African and share similar cultural references,” Sierra Leone-born Kamara said in an interview included in the show notes, referring to Abloh whose parents immigrated to America from Ghana. “I saw American culture, but I am often more interested in my own culture, where my people come from and our kinds of music because I think that is so cool. I guess I like slightly off-cut things because the western media sometimes overpopulates the culture. I can only reference myself because that is my own story.” What played out in his blue box was a celebration of Abloh’s love of pan-African culture and the visual world Kamara knows best, set to a soundtrack by Faty Sy Savanet of Tschegue, incorporating the balafon xylophone native to West Africa.
The collection celebrated a pan-African spirit
In his work at Off-White and Louis Vuitton – where he also served as Men’s Artistic Director – Abloh was devoted to restoring, advancing and promoting a Black canon of art, which included fashion. He wanted the world to have the same knowledge about the African history of art as we do that of Europe. In every way, Kamara’s collection – titled “Celebration” – was an amplification of that objective. While the show notes didn’t reference the specific cultural and tribal references that underpinned the collection – “it’s complete imagination,” Kamara said backstage – garments and accessories were imbued with a spirit of Africa that would have been as prominent without the blue-clad dancers enriching the mood.
Garments centred around anatomy
“Possibilities are boundless. This collection is a celebration of that alongside our freedom to dream, create, and choose,” declared the show notes, written in a collective ‘we’. “Coincidentally, this mood has fallen upon us as anti-abortion laws are being reinstated in real-time across America.” Next to launching a Jenny Holzer-designed t-shirt with the pun “The abuse of flower comes as no surprise” as a nod to the flower motifs that permeated the collection, Kamara’s collection was an investigation of human anatomy interpreted in everything from muscle embroideries on tops to x-ray jacquards in suiting and protective padding in knitwear. Clearly tied to the brand’s pro-abortion message – there were also holes showing women’s stomachs – the body mapping also felt like a nod to Abloh’s oft-reiterated point that regardless of appearance, all humans are built from the same components.
It carried on Abloh’s ethos
“Moving forward, our vision will remain uninhibited and regenerative. Our ideas will evade the binary in favour of the dynamic. This is a new beginning grounded in the ways of our modern master,” the Off-White show notes promised. With Kamara at its helm, fashion will continue to benefit from the horizon-expanding fashion that meant so much to Abloh. The overall feeling may have been different to Abloh’s Off-White, but in spirit, Kamara’s debut collection lived up to what the late designer set out to do with the brand he launched a decade ago: to challenge, enlighten and improve the outlook of a fashion industry that needed it, and still does.
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