Virgil Abloh, Barrier-Breaking Designer, Is Dead at 41
His expansive approach to design inspired comparisons to artists including Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. For him, clothes were totems of identity. The fashion designer Virgil Abloh in Chicago in 2019. His role within LVMH made him the most powerful Black executive in the most powerful luxury group in the world. Credit... David Kasnic for The New York Times By Vanessa Friedman Nov. 28, 2021 Updated 12:30 a.m. ET Virgil Abloh, the barrier-breaking Black designer whose ascent to the heights of the traditional luxury industry changed what was possible in fashion, died on Sunday in Chicago after a two-year battle with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare cancer. He was 41. His death was confirmed by his family. The artistic director of Louis Vuitton men’s wear as well as the founder of his own brand, Off-White, Mr. Abloh was a prolific collaborator with outside brands from Nike to Evian, and a popular fashion theorist whose expansive and occasionally controversial approach to design inspired compa