Mon 29 November 2021:
Virgil Abloh, a fashion executive dubbed the “Karl Lagerfeld of his generation,” has died of cancer. He was 41 years old.
His employer, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Mot Hennessy), stated that Abloh had been dealing with cancer privately 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,” Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, said in a statement.
Louis Vuitton’s menswear designer was Virgil Abloh.
According to a statement posted on Abloh’s Instagram account by his family, the designer has been battling cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer in which a tumor develops in the heart, for the past two years.
“He chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture,” the statement read.
LVMH, Louis Vuitton and Off White are devastated to announce the passing of Virgil Abloh, on Sunday, November 28th, of cancer, which he had been battling privately for several years. pic.twitter.com/CytwZLvSFu
— LVMH (@LVMH) November 28, 2021
“Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom,” Bernard Arnault, the billionaire boss of Luis Vuitton’s owner, French fashion conglomerate LVMH, said in a statement on Sunday.
Born in 1980 near Chicago, Abloh and his sister were raised in Rockford, Illinois. According to a 2018 Vogue magazine profile, his mother Eunice Abloh, a seamstress, taught him the basics of the craft at a young age.
Abloh is survived by his wife, Shannon, and their two children, Lowe and Grey.
In 2018, Abloh became Louis Vuitton’s first black artistic director of men’s wear in the French design house’s illustrious history.
Abloh, a first-generation Ghanaian American whose seamstress mother taught him to sew, lacked formal fashion training but did have a degree in engineering and a master’s degree in architecture.
Abloh, who grew up in Chicago, was known in the fashion world as a Renaissance man.
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