Mar 28

Mar 28 "Make It Ours": Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh - Robin Givhan

Life is so short that you can’t waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do, versus knowing what you can do.

Virgil Abloh. I knew hardly anything about him except that he started the brand Off-White and ran Louis Vuitton’s menswear division. But after reading Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robin Givhan’s biography about him, I wish I had followed his career more closely.

Virgil Abloh’s rise before his untimely death in 2021 was something to behold. The son of immigrant parents from Ghana (they get the job done), Abloh was raised to believe he deserved everything. And believe it he did. Imposter syndrome was never a thing for him (same, I don’t know what that is). Abloh had the confidence, intelligence and curious spirit to live the life he always wanted. His love of fashion, architecture and hip-hop allowed him access to people like Kanye West and Bernard Arnault (head of LVMH) and to start ventures like Pyrex Vision (a brand I knew about but had no idea was started by Abloh) and Off-White. But aside from his quiet ambition and natural charm, Virgil Abloh seemed like a very nice man. Every single person who met and worked with him said he was very nice. And that is something you rarely hear about celebrities.

I heard about this book while listening to an episode of the Vibe Check podcast. Sam Sanders, whom I adore, sang the book’s praises and if Sam likes it, I love it. Plus I thought it was really interesting that a biography about Virgil Abloh had been written so soon after his death. My curiosity took over and I borrowed the book from the library. From the very first page, I knew the book was a winner. Robin Givhan won a Pulitzer for a reason. She is a WRITER. The book is thoroughly researched, incredibly well written and treats Abloh’s story with respect and truth. It is neither sensational nor embellished to make the book interesting. The writing does that all on its own. I appreciated the author not only telling Abloh’s story, she also included lots of history about Rockford, Illinois where he grew up, about Black men like Ozwald Boateng and Edward Buchanan who came before Abloh in the fashion world, and about the fashion houses and designers in general. I found myself glued to each page until the very end.

I did appreciate that Robin Givhan did not spend too much time on Abloh’s illness not because I didn’t want to hear it, but because his family had already lived it. The respect given to their grief is commendable, as there are several authors who would have milked it for all it’s worth.

Robin Givhan has another book that was published previously called The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into the Spotlight and Made History. I’ll definitely be reading it later this year.

Where to buy: The Lit. Bar Loyalty Bookstores Call & Response Books Reparations Club

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