Architect, designer and Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton (Paris) Virgil Abloh passed away yesterday at the age of 41, according to a LVMH press release. Abloh was privately battling cancer for several years.
“We are all shocked after this terrible news. 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,” said Bernard Arnault, LVMH Chairman and CEO.
In July of this year, LVMH acquired a majority stake in Off-White LLC, the apparel brand Abloh founded in 2013.
Born in Rockford, Ill., in 1980, Abloh was an artist, architect, engineer, creative director and designer. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Master’s degree in architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology.