Top 45 Virgil Abloh Quotes

The concept with Off-White is that I have no ideal target. It’s more about trying to make something for everyone. And I think that’s what helps make it unique. That there isn’t a specific muse.

I don’t know where my parents got my name. I’m sure they saw it in a movie, maybe.

I’m not really into style. I’m more into confidence or having something to say.

I try to talk on the phone as little as possible.

Ironic things are interesting.

DJing is my only peace of mind. When the phone is off, I play my favourite songs really loud for myself, and I’m not talking to anyone; I’m not managing anything. It’s just, like, a time when I can listen to music.

The fashion consumer likes a high-low mix – I want to be a brand that represents that.

I’ve always had this in some ways pessimistic and in some ways realistic idea that I’m the lowest rung on the ladder.

Graphic tees are vibes. And I think they’re the basis of a lot of wardrobes, but that makes it challenging to distill what you‘re brand means within a T-shirt.

The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other, and that’s how you create things that are totally new.

My general premise is not about selling clothes. If that’s your end goal, then all of a sudden everything looks the same, you know – you start designing by numbers.

I like to look at fashion and relate it to the time when it was happening.

My friends and me, we’re the type that don’t care. We’re not into fashion. That’s, like, millennial spirit.

I have this overriding principle that streetwear could end up like disco: that it will be perceived well at the time but doesn’t age well at all.

I don’t play golf.

I’m fascinated by the idea that a human connection can be triggered through inanimate devices.

Fashion is kinda a joke. I don’t get too bogged down in the clothes. For me, it’s one big art project, just a canvas to show that fashion should have a brand which has someone behind it who cares about different contexts. Social things.

I don’t sleep as much as normal people do.

I want Off-White to be a graphics-based brand.

Every idea that comes to mind I execute, or I look for outlets to put out ideas.

What I love about tennis is the gracefulness. It’s an aggressive and powerful game, but it takes touch and finesse.

I just wanna start a brand that inspires and is geared towards youth.

I was never meant to, like, work and then turn it off and sit on the couch. I just have a vision, and I’m inspired by it. It’s sort of what makes me tick.

Music needs a visual element to make it tangible. So, naturally, there’s gonna be a synergy between high-level art direction and high-level albums.

In my case, everything starts from Marcel Duchamp and the new expressive possibilities he gave us with his ready-mades. I transferred his artistic language into today‘s world, choosing, for example, to use pedestrian-crossing stripes as a symbol.

My goal was to tell a dialogue between high fashion and streetwear. So, the name Off-White, in my mind, is between black and white. So, that middle ground is a mixture between both genres of fashion.

Growing up, at high school, we all used to wear Champion garments, which, in America, are standard-issue gym uniforms.

I think that, in a digital age, album covers are becoming a lost art.

I don’t have the patience to be a non-creator.

Kanye‘s the best. He really, really is. He’s cool. And why we’ve always gotten along is because we can just sit down and talk about art.

Everything I do references something that influenced me.

I suck at sleeping.

My lifestyle doesn’t really account for movies. I can’t even remember what I last saw.

People, when they say ‘streetwear,’ they miss the central component, which is that it’s real people; it’s clothes that are worn on the street.

The blue-collar culture, it’s not really a buttoned-up aesthetic. It’s a heavy-labor thing because you’re, like, sweating.

Fashion and music are two great artistic forms that can be molded by the youth culture – our taste and our passion for evolving things in our limited time on earth allows us to look at things with fresh eyes.

For me, as I was growing up, I studied architecture, I was into music, and I always felt that there was a gap between the things that I loved and consumed and who made them and how they made them.

I started off as a kid who didn’t care what my education was.

My graphic design skills are superior to a lot of other things I can do; I use it as a part of my tool kit.

I always live in multiple places. I’m never in the same city for seven days.

To me, graphic T-shirts are the most important and most expressive format for a designer or a person. Your taste in graphic tees says a lot about your point of view.

I’m always trying to prove to my 17-year-old self that I can do creative things I thought weren’t possible.

You can look at Lil Uzi and know he has a strong opinion about his aesthetic.

My place in design history is to sort of interpret youth culture, and I think we’ve seen that done in fashion before – it’s not a new concept – but it hasn’t been done with the same vigour in a modern context.

Take Tom Sachs as an artist. His brain is more brilliant than anything, so of course, anything he puts out over a ten-year period is going to continue to be super relevant. But if you look at some artists, they have one good idea, but unless you know where it’s coming from, it’s not going to be lasting.