Off-White PRE-FALL 2020
After months of health-related rest, Virgil Abloh’s start to 2020 is business as usual with three fashion collections and a furniture exhibition in Paris over the span of three days. Up first: Off-White pre-fall, which took place as a brief one-on-one visit. While his team appeared deep in preparation for the Off-White men’s show. Within hours, fans would be lining up outside the Galerie Kreo to post photos of his graffiti-tagged seating.
The images that appear here, meanwhile, were taken at the Galerie Patrick Seguin across town (one wonders whether these typically discreet destinations will soon be co-opted as the new hotel lobbies). Increasingly, Abloh is pursuing fashion and design in parallel and sampling as such. Look no further than those Jean Prouvé screens to explain the seemingly random circular holes. That puncture his tote bags and concrete benches alike. “Iconic design from a different era. But with my young perspective,” he said, pointing out that the suited people. Who fill some of the photos, shot by Alessio Bolzoni, are transmitting a consequential vibe too. “How does the Off-White girl stand distinct in the crowd?”
The fact is that the Off-White girl will always stand out. Even in a fashion crowd, even when there are five other girls nearby wearing boots emblazoned with ironic quotes and coats surfaced in street signaling. With this collection, however, Abloh steered the looks further into ladylike territory. Faux sable coats, skirt suits featuring jackets with peaked sleeves, and floaty floral dresses. All were remixed, restyled, or proposed in glossier fabrics so that there was no mistaking them for vintage. True to his “gray area” conceit, Abloh sees no difference between the pieces that daughters might cop from their mothers and vice versa (see the age-inclusive casting of the spring show as proof). These latest leather blazers, shirts, and slightly fuller pants will be coveted by all demographics.
For those curious whether Abloh remained actively involved in the making of this collection despite his prolonged absence from the Milan studio, his answer was a resolute yes. The “Free Winona” and “Pays Own Rent” message tees were his contributions. For instance, and their affirmational impact landed somewhere between We Should All Be Feminists and Single Ladies. Naturally, some Off-White collections can register more disruptive, more conceptual than others. Aside from the ubiquitous, updated logo tag with its floating face and hands, this one drew largely from the existing playbook.
For his part, Abloh noted the value of evolving incrementally. Especially if the horizon is measured in decades, not years (to think the brand is only six). “I have this new philosophy about clothing in an anthropological sense. Something that happens when you take time off and get heady…” he said, before going off on a tangent on dinosaurs only to arrive at a worthy takeaway: “The endgame is always optimistic.”
So, See all the looks from Off-White PRE-FALL 2020 Collection in the gallery below :
source: Vogue
