Virgil Abloh
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A scholarship created in honor of the late designer Virgil Abloh will be expanded this year to have more recipients and a greater outreach beyond art and design schools.
According to reports, a scholarship fund that was created in honor of the late pioneering Black designer will be expanded. The Virgil Abloh “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund, which benefited 30 recipients, will now go to 60 recipients in addition to offering financial grants for those aspiring to become a part of the fashion industry. Shannon Abloh and Fashion Scholarship Fund Director, Peter Arnold, announced the plan at a gala held in New York City Monday (April 8). The expansion is a welcome move by the group, which admitted having potential students turn down scholarship offers in the past due to financial hardship. Virgil Abloh, best known for his work with Off White and Louis Vuitton, succumbed to cancer in 2021.
“Some have to work,” Ms. Abloh said. “They can’t quit their job and go to school. There was a student whose laptop broke, and she couldn’t afford to replace it, so she was going to drop out of school. That’s not OK,” Abloh said in an interview with the New York Times. The Scholarship Fund was started in 2020 with $1 million in seed funding by Virgil Abloh to foster the next generation of Black designers and creators in fashion. The expansion plan will also now be available to students at community colleges and other schools not in the art and design track. There will also be opportunities for students to connect with the vast network of friends and associates that Virgil Abloh worked with including Tremaine Emory and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, the celebrated stylist who was an early FSF recipient. “Virgil was impatient,” Shannon Abloh said. “He liked to move fast, so he would have been ready for this to happen. It was always like, ‘How can we affect the most students in the biggest way possible?’”
There are also plans to expand the Virgil Abloh Foundation’s operations and reach within the year. “The goal will be providing access and opportunities to young kids, just as the V.A.P.M. does, but in a slightly different way,” she continued. “In 20 years I want the young kid who’s interested in creative arts to find Virgil. The foundation will provide a way for them to see his work and have access to what he created.”
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André 3000’s new instrument is opening new doors for him. He has revealed that he was asked to perform at Virgil Abloh’s funeral but he respectfully declined.
As previously reported the Outkast member is on the verge of returning to the music industry but his way. This week it was announced that he will be releasing his new album New Blue Sun. He will not be rapping on the album but playing his flute. Over the last couple of years the “So Fresh, So Clean” MC has put the microphone down and picked up the aerophone. During an interview with NPR he discussed his musical transformation and more.
During the conversation he talked about being invited to perform at Virgil Abloh’s funeral to which he said no. He explained his decision saying “his family asked would I play at the funeral and I denied it, but only because I felt like I would be a distraction,” He added “I don’t know, I just felt like it would have taken away from the moment and I only knew Virgil through texts and a few conversations. So I couldn’t pretend like I knew him that well.”
The Dungeon Family member went on to say “when my mom passed, I had this urge to play. But I wasn’t even playing flute back then. I think I was more on guitar at that point. And I just didn’t” André 3000 revealed. “I don’t think I could go through with it. But yeah, there’s something about it … playing at funerals. I think New Orleans has it best. Like, I think the way we do funerals, I think it’s really antiquated and sad. I think we need to party more.”
New Blue Sun will be released Friday, November 17. You can hear the NPR interview here.
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The culture continues to learn how deep Virgil Abloh’s influence goes. A$AP Rocky reveals that the late great discovered A$AP MOB.
As spotted on HipHopDX the Harlem, New York native recently was honored at Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR) 16th Annual Fashion Show & Style Awards the world famous Apollo Theatre. The “Wild for the Night” rapper received the Virgil Abloh Award and recalled how the creative was one of the collective’s earliest fans. “Virgil discovered A$AP as a bunch of kids before I got my record deal and any of that. We wasn’t old enough to get into this club called Le Bain. We were sneaking in type sh*t,” he explained.
“Virgil peeped us and unbeknownst to us, he was like, ‘Wait, y’all are those Harlem kids. The trendy ones.’ We was tripping like, ‘Wait, Virgil know about us. The fashion world know about us.’ A year later, I become A$AP Rocky.” He went on to further detail Virgil’s contribution to his solo career. “Virgil went on to design my first album cover and my first tour. It’s crazy because to be a trendsetter, it takes a lot of balls… The reason I can talk in front of y’all today is because of Harlem. Thank you Harlem fashion, bro.”
You can see A$AP Rocky’s discuss Virgil Abloh below.
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Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, sat down and explained exactly what went on with the artists’ album cover designed by Virgil Abloh that caused a backlash.
The late rapper’s manager recently sat down for an interview on the latest episode of the Rap Radar podcast, which aired Friday (June 30). Victor, who also hails from Brooklyn, addressed the criticism directed at him over how he’s managed the affairs of Pop Smoke, with the album cover of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, and his work with the late designer Virgil Abloh.
“That was bullshit,” Victor began when asked about the controversy beginning with the fan reception for Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album release. “People sit back and think they know, but they don’t know s–t. They’re like, ‘oh, this is not what Pop would like.’ I’m like, ‘f–k you talkin’ about?’”
Months after Pop Smoke, aka Bashar Jackson’s murder in February 2020, Victor showed off the album cover artwork from Abloh on his Instagram page. Comments piled up, with many calling the artwork from the Louis Vuitton designer “lazy” among other scathing descriptions.
He continued: “When we did the video for ‘Shake the Room,’ like that whole concept and idea was Virgil’s idea, and when we were going through the process, like at first, Pop was like—’cause, y’know, he’d never had a video like that—he was like, ‘I don’t know,’ but he trusted Virgil’s vision, so it would’ve been the same thing.”
The backlash – which included a fan petition – compelled Victor and the label to replace the cover art, and Abloh would later delete the image from his own social media accounts. Conceptual artist Ryder Riggs was then commissioned to create a new album cover. It would eventually be a chrome rose against a pitch-black background.
“I was brought on to do design and creative direction for this project, and I was experimenting with flowers in 3D at the time,” Riggs said in a Complex interview after the cover’s debut. “While I was experimenting, I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is so perfect.’ People use flowers to memorialize people, and by fixing it in metal, it’s taking something that’s fleeting and making it permanent.”
Check out the entire interview below.
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The inaugural Mirror Mirror Music festival, which will also serve as a tribute to the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, will feature Travis Scott, Skepta and Benji B as headliners.
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The event, which was curated by Benji B and produced by Virgil Abloh Securities, will be held during Art Basel on Dec. 3 FPL Solar Amphitheater at Bayfront Park in Miami. All profits from the event will benefit the Virgil Abloh Foundation, set to launch next year.
Yves Tumor, Pedro, Venus X, BAMBII, Rampa and Acyde are also set to perform at the festival.
Abloh, who served as men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton, died in November 2021 at age 41 after a private battle with cancer. He founded the streetwear-focused luxury label Off-White and served as Kanye West’s longtime creative director, later ascending to the prestigious role at Louis Vuitton in 2018, becoming the label’s first African-American artistic director.
“Virgil had the ability to bring everyone together to create magic,” said Abloh’s widow Shannon Abloh — who is also the CEO and managing director of Virgil Abloh Securities — in a press statement to Spin. “With his close collaborators, we wanted to bring everyone together to celebrate Virgil — his legacy, his passion, and his care for others. He believed his real work was championing others and we will continue his work supporting youth in the arts with the launch of the Virgil Abloh Foundation in 2023.”
Tickets go on sale for Mirror Mirror Music festival on Wednesday (Nov. 23) at 10 a.m. ET here.
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