The Rise of Designer Virgil Abloh
Abloh’s goal is to make clothing that is both fashion forward and trendy but also unique in its own way. The brand’s mission statement is to bring street wear and high fashion together by exploring the concepts of branding and expressing the culture of youth. All products are based in a concept that adapts from season to season. Manufacturing is based in Milan with a core value of the brand to be made from the best available and particular opinion regarding fabrics and fit.
In all of Abloh’s products you’ll notice the heavy use of quotation marks. Shoelaces have the actual word “Shoelaces” printed on them with the quotation marks, and leather bags that can cost as much as $2,500 have “Sculpture” printed on them. By presenting the actual words as citations he is taking them out of context and questioning their seriousness. When he puts “Sculpture” on the side of a handbag, he is provoking the consumer and people surrounding them.  Abloh stated in an interview “We’re at the beginning of what I believe is the “streetwear” era of fashion; which is about doing it yourself, and logos, and irony, and satire; but it can also be chic, and refined, and elevated. That’s Off-White” (Leach, A. 2017, August 30).
Cash cows of Off-White are considered to be the most popular products that don’t need as much advertising because they simply don’t need it. An example of a cash cow are the original products from the first original collection which is what consumers have prior knowledge of. Products that are a large investment for potential success are the ones being constantly advertised on social media. One example is the women’s “For Walking” boots. They are available in black or white and have been posted and shared on multiple social media platforms so that a large number of the millennial market have been exposed to this product and know that Off-White is selling this piece. Another product that has made its way across the internet is the yellow industrial belt. This has been a hot selling piece in the fashion industry since it was released, selling out on the brands website in minutes (Off-White-Official-Website 2019).
As of March 2019, the brands global rank in the market share is at a 32, 032 and its country rank in the United States is a 21,782 (Traffic Statistics. 2019). According to Lyst, a global fashion search engine - in 2018 the brand rose 14 percent over in the third quarter and ranked as the 34th brand on the hottest brands list (Nast, C. 2019).
Abloh is looking to make the move to commercialize his brand by opening up to more and more customers. He has proven that he has the creative vision to commercialize his brand without falling into the trap of diffusion lines like other brands who have failed. On the brand’s Instagram, he has completely opened the curtain sharing his design process and collected opinions on various types of fabrics and even has invited his fans to fashion shows (2018b, January 12). He is constantly posting pictures of the designs he is working on but keeps it minimal, it’s as if his work speaks louder than words which is why he may just post simplistic pictures.
Off-White gets to the market by advertising on social media platforms, the biggest and main one being Instagram, through celebrity endorsements in the media, and the company’s website. Celebrity endorsements add value to the brand because consumers are always looking to be inspired by the next big thing. There is Instagram research that shows evidence on users under the age of 25, millennials, spend on average more than 30 minutes a day on Instagram (“Virgil Abloh’s Social Media Rise to Success”2019).  This research proves that the target market of this brand is consistently using this social media platform, millennials are always following their favorite celebrities, athletes, influencers, models, etc. This gives Abloh the perfect reason and benefit to share his brand to target consumers through this platform to gain followers and make sales.
“I didn’t make a conscious decision one day that I wanted to be a designer. I made Pyrex, which in my mind was more like an art piece. It was a ten-minute film that I wanted to make, and I needed clothing to support this idea of a team with no sport. I was very intent on stopping it before it really got started”. After six months, Virgil had a company. They opened the first Off-White store in Hong Kong and Virgil was traveling the world 24/7. “We made that Hong Kong store with one group chat and all met for the first time at dinner the day of the opening.”Â
The way Virgil operates is very in the moment, like his reflections on Instagram. It’s not this long, logistical written-out thing. His brain works with so much fluidity (Bettridge).
“What exactly does a designer make? As an architect, you have a site, a program, a budget, and you have to create architecture that engages those different forces. But when you think about what Virgil does in the role of creative director, it’s about the music he listens to, the parties he orchestrates, the brands he’s associated with, the life he lives. So Virgil really becomes a personification of a world that people find really attractive and want to patch into. And you can do that by the very expensive method of buying an Off-White coat, but you can also do it for free by following him on Instagram. Either way, you feel like you’re part of it.” (Bettridge).
On a consumer opinion research find - a fashion critic, Robin Givhan, from the Washington Post expresses her opinion on Virgil Abloh’s brand Off-White. Referring to his collections before his launch of the fall 2017 collection, a direct quote from her claims that she stated “What Abloh did not have was much experience in womenswear. In previous collections, he struggled with some of the basics, notably fit. Making the shift from street-inspired menswear to women’s clothes means wrestling with hips and busts, curves and proportions. In the fall 2017 collection, Abloh seemed to have worked through those technical bugaboos. The clothes fit his models. And aesthetically, it was a much more interesting show. Instead of walking along a plain runway, his models made their way through an evocative set — the floor covered in a blanket of brown leaves and the path lined with bare trees. Abloh set a mood that was romantic, mysterious and just a little bit spooky” (Givhan, R. 2017). Â
The brand shows major strengths in the areas of using high quality to produce the products, innovative designs that are trending at the time of release, and remaining available worldwide in stores around the world. This helps expand the brand and its image so that everyone will be able to recognize and associate Off-White as a luxury brand, especially through its usage of social media and celebrity endorsements to stay up to date with the collections of each season. The price of the brands products are very high which sets limitations. This can be negative for the brand because only certain people of certain social classes can purchase these items in a timely manner, which means only a small percent of consumers are purchasing products at a time. Overall, the brand has been a booming success due to Virgil Abloh’s hard and dedicated work. He continues to inspire the youth and gets inspired from them, which is the leverage to his ideas and success. The brand has excellent brand awareness and Abloh can continue to use this to his advantage by growing his brand. The more eyes on him, the better. His personality and brand mission make him stand out because he understands his target market, the generation, and the world we live in today. Social media has been the platform to his success. The brands marketing mix activities are all well integrated within Off-White. With the number of collaborations Abloh is working on and has planned will only help grow this company. The only risk of having so many collaborations is brand image and confusing his customers by possibly expanding too far. The positive outcomes outweigh the negative, Off-White is still a young brand and has plenty of life, opportunities, and success to come in the future. Â
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