On Monday, November 29, it was announced via Instagram that American fashion designer and founder of Off-White, Virgil Abloh had passed away on November 28 at 41 years old. His family released a statement attached to the post revealing some details about his death. It was revealed that Abloh had been struggling with a “rare” and “aggressive” form of cancer called cardiac angiosarcoma, that he chose to keep a secret from the public for over two years. His family, including his wife, parents, and two children, asked for privacy as they grieved the immense loss.    

The fashion community is also struggling with this sudden loss. Abloh first began his career in fashion in 2009, after graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and becoming an intern at Fendi in Rome. In 2013 Abloh founded Off-White, a multi-platform creative endeavor based in Milan. One year later, Off-White launched womenswear, and showed both mens and womenswear at Paris Fashion Week.

Off-White continues to grow and 2017 became one of Abloh’s most important years yet. He announced a collaborative exhibition with Takashi Murakami opening at Gagosian, he released his first song, opened the Off-White store in New York, won the British Fashion Award for Urban Luxe Brand, and collaborated with Warby Parker, Jacob the Jeweler, and Jimmy Choo.

However, Abloh’s biggest success in 2017 was The Ten, his sneaker partnership with Nike where Abloh re-created 10 of Nike’s iconic silhouettes in his own work-in-progress style, each with a, now iconic, safety tag around the laces. The success of the limited release led to additional releases throughout the rest of the year. In 2018, Abloh was named the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections, a position he held till his death. 

Abloh’s standing in the fashion industry is forever cemented as an icon, who will be best known for his groundbreaking designs.