Off-White Ready-To-Wear Collections SS19
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OFF-WHITE c/o Virgil AblohTM Men’s Spring Summer 2019 Ready to wear - Jim Stark
Virgil Abloh embraces the fluidity of youth culture in his Spring Summer 2019 collection titled ‘Jim Stark’. The collection consists of a wardrobe of bold graphics, t-shirts and strong denim attire – scripted embroidered and studded jeans in collaboration with En Bravado.
Abloh envisions his muse of a “universal teenager” in New York, with an emphasis on skate culture through his details of industrial chains and charms paired eloquently with elevated utility jeans. New York native graffiti artist, Donald “Dondi” White’s best known works appeared across a multitude of tees and jackets within the collection – capturing the artistic, nostalgic nature of New York culture intertwined with the concept of rebellion. This idea of rebellion approaches Abloh’s reference to “Jim Stark” played by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, in addition to the appearance of Bart Simpson in the collection. Both two fictional young icons linked directly with an infamous wardrobe of T-shirts and jeans, and a subversive streak. Off-White x Rimowa suitcase backpacks walked the runway – clear and empty to signify “teenage emotional burden”. The elevated, structured silhouettes and textures within the collection fabricate the looks as ambi-guous amongst adults and teens – reaching a universal relationship with youth culture.
OFF-WHITE c/o Virgil AblohTM Women’s Spring Summer 2019 Ready to wear - Track & Field
“Sport, like fashion, shares a common language that seeks to unite cultures, break down barriers and celebrate the power of the human spirit,” says Abloh. “This season, I was inspired by the voice of the athlete and the power of sport to impact positive and transformative change globally.”
For his Spring Summer 2019 collection Abloh defines Off-White as “making a new aesthetic by crashing two things together that are not related.” In this collection, he embodies femininity “crashed” against athletic apparel and sport throughout. The textures and silhouettes in the collection embrace this concept and make it “sports couture” more so than “athleisure”. Details, such as taking an athletic shoe and turning it into a feminine high heel – a bike short, but tailored, achieve this vision. Nike footwear featured on the runway includes the Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite Flyprint, Nike Zoom Fly SP “The Ten,” Nike Zoom Fly Flyknit and two conceptual designs based on the Zoom Fly and Waffle Racer silhouettes respectively.
Known for distorting and giving fresh perspective to Nike’s most iconic silhouettes, Virgil Abloh’s latest collaborative work with Nike takes inspiration from a more human icon: the Athlete. Nike track and field athletes walked the runway – the line-up included Dina Asher Smith, Vashti Cunningham, Cecilia Yeung, English Gardner, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Nafi Thiam, Caterine Ibarguen and Renelle Lamote.
About Off-WhiteTM c/o Virgil Abloh
Established in 2013, Off-WhiteTM is defining the grey area between black and white as a color. Under the brand name, seasonal collections of men’s and women’s clothing, objects, furniture, and publications are articulating a current culture vision. Collections embedded in a recurrent back story with an emphasis on creating garments that have an identity by design. With a design studio based in Milan, Italy the label harnesses the history and craftsmanship within the country yet offers a global perspective in terms of design and trends. With a clear vision of splicing the reality of how clothes are worn and the artistic expression of high-fashion, creative director and designer Virgil Abloh explores concepts in the realm of youth culture in the contemporary context.
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