Fashion designer Virgil Abloh, a trailblazing artist who served as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear and founded his own Off-White label, died Sunday after a two-year battle with cancer, the French fashion house announced.
Abloh, 41, had been privately battling cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, for two years, said parent company, LVMH.
“We are all shocked after this terrible news,” company CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement on Twitter. “Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom.
“The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow, and we are all thinking of his loved ones after the passing of their husband, their father, their brother, or their friend.”
Abloh, who became the creative director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear line in 2018 — the first black designer in that role — was known for designing wardrobes for celebrities like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.
The company said he was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer in 2019.
“Virgil, I am lost for words,” fashion designer Donatella Versace wrote on Instagram, among the scores of celebrities who reacted to news of Abloh’s death.
“The world has lost a fashion superstar,” she wrote. “A creator for the history books. I am thinking of all your loved ones on this tragic day.”
Haley Baldwin told Glamour magazine that Abloh “completely changed the way I looked at street style and fashion.”
“I will never be able to fully express how grateful I am to have known him and worked with him, from walking on his runway to having him design my wedding dress and all the other amazing moments in between.”
“My heart is broken,” singer/songwriter Pharrell Williams added on Twitter.
“Virgil you were a kind, generous, thoughtful creative genius,” Williams wrote. “Your work as a human and your work as a spiritual being will live forever.”
Meanwhile, former soccer star David Beckham and his wife, former Spice Girl and model Victoria Beckham, both offered condolences.
“A true inspiration in so many ways,” Victoria Beckham said on Instagram. Rest in peace @virgilabloh. Sending love and light to your beautiful family.”
Meanwhile, Kanye paid tribute to his friend and collaborator Sunday following his streamlined service, with a title card that read, “In loving memory of Virgil Abloh, the creative director of Donda,” USA today said.
According to a post on Abloh’s Instagram account, the designer is survived by his wife, Shannon, and his two children, Lowe and Grey Abloh, as well as his sister and his parents.
With Post wires
