“Just Point Yourself in the Direction of Your Dreams”—Remembering Virgil Abloh’s First Off-White Runway

Virgil and I spoke for a few minutes, but he also insisted, “You need to be in the dark, just like everyone else!” He said he wanted the show “to be a reminder that this is still an art form—not just the clothing but making people gather in a room and creating a moment that opens their mind.”

Evident from the first collection that featured Caravaggio images on t-shirts, Abloh was driven by the semiotic intersection of art, fashion, music, and architecture. Here, he drew our eyes up the white wall to a message, printed upside-down and inverted, that read, “Why are you looking at.”

Off-White, spring 2016 reaady-to-wear

Photo: Courtesy of Off-White C/O Virgil Abloh

Off-White, spring 2016 reaady-to-wear

Photo: Courtesy of Off-White C/O Virgil Abloh

Philosophical questions aside, what we were looking was a lineup of just 20 looks that revolved around deconstructing and reconstructing the basics: primarily denim but also white tees, men’s shirts, and Grateful Dead crew shirts (official, not bootleg, and hand-painted in watercolor by an artist pal, Othelo Gervacio). Jeans were reworked with ring-pull zippers, composed as patchwork and draped and pleated as a maxi skirt. He had even gone into the Levi’s archives and had access to some of their precious stock.

I remember thinking it didn’t matter that some of the techniques lacked finesse; this is usually fixable. What interested me was his remixing of references: the newly fresh grunge and club codes, the ode to Margiela in the key of streetwear. Credit goes to stylist Stevie Dance for realizing Abloh’s concept that these looks were about dressing up, not down.

Instead of a final walk, the models appeared wearing clear PVC coats over their looks—“Off-White” Staff Uniform 2013-2016 printed on the back—and stood in formation as Pablo Tomek tagged them with black spray paint.

All along, the music had been eerie. DJ Guillaume Berg merged a track from Gesaffelstein, the sound of rushing wind and the spoken lyrics from Galaxy 2 Galaxy. An excerpt: “Am I happy with the way my life is going? Do I have a life or am I just living?… Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams. Find your strength in the sound. And make your transition.” This last line, “Make your transition,” echoed on as Abloh came out and the audience erupted in applause.

As transitions go, it delivered. Abloh wasn’t trying to prove he had the background of a classically trained fashion designer, but he did want us to experience what happens when reworked denim and bags tagged with diagonal graffiti lines become part of a larger vision that, done right, would ripple across cultures. “I’m hoping to give a different emotion,” he said post-show. In other words, a vibe.