Virgil Abloh Explains Why Streetwear Is an Art Movement

I think they're having a conversation which is the first and foremost most important part you know and the way I see it it's like brands are starting to have a new type of dialogue with the customer you know the customer the public in general has a lot more knowledge and a lot more discerning so you know being a designer now means something different than the designer the previous sort of generation and I think what makes room for a large opportunity is that there's new space for new dialogue I think there's a new room you know there's a new to me you know there's a new space to be defined that's the best way like I don't think we've yet to see how substantial and how innovative and how creative this new mergers meant to be and you know my work is focused on making it you know making tangible examples whether that be a fashion show or a garment or a collaboration just to find space and I've always been about like discovering by doing so that's sort of my you know I take that as my personal goal as to understand what this new ethos in design can breed like new you know unique collections garment to the new way that fast she can relate to the public yeah you know I'm not sort of like comfortable with like a status quo you know it's important to note to originally I was just been you know consumer I was the person that was just buying things that were interesting I came from an era where some Street where in New York in Los Angeles in Japan that there was sort of like great vibrance but it was new and sort of an independent market and then obviously times are different so instead of when those brands are designed those things weren't sort of able to continue I saw a void you know picking up the conversation where they left off and so for me it's just about you know expressing ideas and sort of building a project that sort of tangible in a way it's easy you know it's in the history books you know there's already stores on streets for that I think we have yet to see what's the future what's the what's fashion look like past you know Yves saint-laurent side you have ready-to-wear I think that now we are in a generation where us as for the participants of a sort of street where culture can sort of dictate and they'll more than anything I feel like I'm a descendant of you know everyone from Kanye West Pharrell Williams to lost the odd or Warhol you know I'm I'm no one sort of as the first statement second statement is we're a part of a generation you know an artist a movement that goes beyond just the website hi Beast you know before we were sort of documenting these products it was you know there was a the sex shop with Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren it was me go and Hiroshi sort of criss crossing and sharing street culture ideas but you know I draw that one and all the way back to the Renaissance or you know these art movements so you know essentially I'm just an assistant to the people that came before me trying to add to the design that goes forward for the next generation and continue like I'm not anything I'm just creative you know there's different words different boxes to put types of creativity into which I'm not that preoccupied with I'm only interested in like making relevant ideas all of them you know I everything sort of equally weighted for me every project I take on I try to like swing as hard as possible and make it it's sort of potent and it's good you know I don't I don't do a project that I can sort of sort of grasp around you know I think more than anything it's I'm considered I'm sort of focused on this sort of lineage of work and sort of consistency across different that to me is more important than a particular project and what the resonance is on that it's that if I did something an album cover her sneaker design an in-store experience or a temporary flyer on my Instagram that everything sort of is rooted in some principle that's signature to my work I think because you know it's like this shirt that I made that's behind me is there something post post-modern it's this idea that if it's been done before you want it sort of refresh just enough for it to be engaging to recognize it and so my what I've been doing if some of my own work is sort of like making work sort of just you know thinking freely but then also analyzing that work to understand why it resonates future work is based off of the analysis plus that creative spark you know I'm about for me if it has to have a rationale you know design is just designed it just sits on the table but unless there's a rationale or thought process behind it then it to me is it valuable so you know that's just how I think it's a design you know the lecturers are they're sort of you know I've yet to work on sort of my first book sort of the cataloguing all the work or sort of expressing the ideas for those lectures those are those are sort of like systems to communicate an idea a lot of what I think is missing from our culture's discourse whether it be critical let it be instructional whether it be motivating whether it be here's how to actually do this just don't be a consumer and you know those epiphanies I had from my cell started the work and my idea is if I'm sort of borrowing airtime I'm also going to give back and sort of empathy to me it's only better if this sort of community of street where it actually grows and be is a foundation so it's not me just the sort of Lone Ranger sort of exploring ideas having these sort of valuable experiences in the past going out to sort of achieve something for myself it's not interesting to me the only thing interesting me is my own body of work and then working and being creative but as you said like you know you know like height these comments themselves are interesting that's sort of like culture you know I don't read any of it but I can identify with that sense of sort of critique humour expressiveness that should dictate what those products look like that are up top of those comments you know it's a community and I'm interested in that you know like I said I don't read that but I get I can see an image and already know what the comments are to meet at the valuable design skill and I could discount it but I don't I like it I think it's our our no matter is if if the t-shirt is worthy of being made or not or your sneakers actually adding to the culture you know I want the larger fashion industry ecosystem to not see us you know as this sort of like fly-by-night trend the sort of hyper consumer you know this real discerning taste there's kids in our community that know you know Helmut Lang collections by heart you know there's kids with crazy archive collections and then they also understand the sort of camaraderie amongst themselves I understand that true makes I my only contention was that there's no designing that manifested that you know there's more there there's a lot now which i think is great you know well I've only my true sizes should be myself in any sort of scenario some authentic to that it's not like that it's that to me is what should be happening in 2017 you know I shouldn't be sitting like looking at photos of these important moments and wonder why why are these other cultural things so important but then these other ones are so separate you know I very much you know can't sleep at night because there were Georgians up than that you know and the migos performed there you know to me that's that's an my work is sort of founded on that it's like no longer being the peanut gallery you're staying with your like man so-and-so should have one this is EMA or something looks like wait let me get off the couch make something and sort of put those two things on the table so that kids can rejoice and feeling like oh this institution has is recognizing what's happening in the street it's me you know same seventeen year old version of myself skating listening to rap music you know I'm just older and I've made a profession out of it you know I don't it's not on one hand it's not work by any means I'm still like just being freeform creative but it's my life you know that's my creative expression to me one of the main motivations is that you know not to miss you know I'm into humanity more than like the cool sneakers or something but design has that ability to transform and use both those tools you know I sit around and I think wait like my interactions with people are not rooted in the sort of prejudice against like race age color religion you know sexuality but a lot of people feel that way you know and I'm my project embedding like I would say at the core is like humanity and education like we can use design we can use trends and these brand because good ideas to sort of share information and so that's my main motivating factor and I just use it as proof you know yeah you can go to a job interview and now it shouldn't be be higher whether or not yeah though right sort of costume for the right persona but maybe things are more relevant now that speak to you know it's all about personal expression you know these clothes are just tools to sort of make a collage about yourself so that people can sort of understand what you know is your house dress this is my phone you know like I've always made it a point to be friends with a very group of people that doesn't know like my optimism or whatever and it's like it was just a design conversation make something that was valuable when all these words that I'm saying you know like I'm a very big sort of advocate that you can take these words and put them into a product that's an epiphany like I didn't know that you could you know if the shoes a shoe like how can you say that it's supposed to like bridge all these gaps and be interesting for you know a tourist and a purist someone that's obsessed with sneakers and someone that just literally doesn't care but looks at them and they're like oh you know crossing all boundaries of the street where is it - is it for young is it for all you know that can be designed whole ecosystem so for me you know I'm thankful the response but that's what I designed that's that's probably like goal number one is make something that people cherish you know we should be making more shoes if they're not different to me they should have a reason for existing it's all personal feedback you know like if I get along and we there's a spark then something can be made together so you know that's important to me it's also important that I cannot a fee of certain things you know IKEA represents something so you could design then you can also have a conversation with a dialogue my approach to something that's you know that's cemented in it so same with Nike same with champion you know I only collaborate with brands that I feel like I can have a dialogue on multiple levels with I don't know you know I think you know timing you know a lot of people came before in a different era you know this current era there's a lot more freedom you know kids on the Instagram or photoshopping checks backwards and things so it's just cultures moving that's all it's been like that since before now you know we're not the only ones to discover this and I think for me it was there's sort of two tones to sort of like this pillar of design which is sort of like again the post postmark let's just change it because we've never seen it and it makes it interesting you can go either like a punk route which is just like self-serving to the artist or something or you can the way I see it is sort of like a goodwill you know and I took that approach my thing with all the edits to the Nike which is reinforcing the iconography or the principles of the brand is I was using it as a dialog you know Roger Federer hitting tennis balls in the Jordan that say his name on it it's like you know to me like when Jordan is getting kicked out of the league because it's just a style choice that's against the rules were you know Andre Agassi's wearing like street clothes and it's the fact you have to to me it was like a conscious like hey I'm just turning the wheel back and forth without saying the point is to underline 90 innovation what is important to that brand me as an outside designer I can choose to exalt or put down an idea was to exalt it until level and find a space so in the end that wasn't any editing of my proposal be it on the actual shoe or you know the off-campus concept think it's like a sort of camaraderie you know it's a sort of collective it's a community it's this idea that that there's open space whether it's music whether it's fashion whether it's you know culinary it's not like necessarily a sort of specific thing it's a collective consciousness this is what we're into this is the trend flannels or dress shirts where we're not in the dress shoes anymore we're in the sneakers we're not into you know it's like this sort of it's the upside is it's a sort of international community that never maybe existed in such a cemented way we have the staying social media where we can communicate and we are just a a world of young people no longer just like a niche culture in one city of young people that therein lies I think some sort of new space you know the kid in Tokyo and a kid in Kansas are essentially talking to each other I think we're soon to be up that cup you know I've seen sort of sign you know I have said this before my ideas that that you know like all Rodeo Drive is updated you know Madison Avenue is like the storied history these brands but this new era a new style of design it's sort of given that as a backdrop and they sort of like you get this sort of energized and get this sort of refreshed approach about design and culture and those are inside and less like storied like brands you know that's what I think I think we're a niche culture of designers and I think we're also new niche culture of of artists you know and the more that we make collectively and sort of support and foster that we're gonna see great works of art we see great designers I see great collections again if if that community is sort of fostered in itself one design air pushes another one artist does an amazing show you get this sort of like synergy you know my brain was like of a whole like a hundred percent of like a a pie chart only like 15 percent is actual product you know or clothing the rest of that you know 85 percent it's like there's marketing there's business there's build out the pop-up shops there's website design there's digital you know there's culinary there's furniture you know all these other things that could serve that same ingenuity that we brought to t-shirts you know and that's more of what I think is like I think in the next three four five years that these like sort of like street wearing quotes way of thinking about cell phones can give us a different type of cell phone you know I've been focused on this that like street wear might be an art movement that we just don't know we might have just sort of like short did it the short end of the stick and called it you know a state brand and that's what my work is focused on it's not not necessarily limiting myself to this way of thinking in sort of having a dialogue of fashion fashion history it's like how can it relate to how we can make different products across all realms you know I think like uber is like a street where type idea to me it's like I F it used to be like a shorthand terminology for like being creative with limited to me like how its ready-made me like that's how a lot of this culture wake up stairs like give me a skateboard watch me do these tricks skate culture you know that's taking something and kids sitting for hours on end like learning how to flip the board in different ways or different touch with groanings or something like that but the in the same token it's like hey we all love polo will not a go we all love Tommy Hilfiger we need to make our brand that's smaller it's not about getting big let's make a logo screen-printed sell it that's true you know it's like hey we're not gonna look for a factory in China to make clothings like hey let's buy this blank one let's edit it that Street where as the art movement then it's like Basquiat you know paintings but then also going around Soho and graffiti you know Warhol culture an analysis on you know the pop culture at the time screen printing brillo box high art you know I think that the ethos of perhaps you know I'm just projecting but using it as an example like oh Steve Jobs gives us the App Store it's like wait we have the ability to use these apps to like call and give the location somebody synthesize it's like wait it's already here let me call this restaurant or Paul the TA make a system to remove taxi drivers that's that same sort of like you know hey we're born in the 90s now it's the 2000s via the internet we're using technology packaging it up and now all of a sudden kids say I need uber I don't need a taxi that's not that you know that's why you street wear quotes it's not limited or degraded by this like sort of like youth obsession with a box logo t-shirt it's a way of thinking there's new roads to be made in that and we're at the cusp of it you know we're only like five years deep you know ten years like the start to you know obviously the start is like wave everyone can say but I would say like like dog town of z-boys like hey we have a shot at Sketchup or you know you can't discount all the steps that got us here you know nigo developing bait to be a luxury brand and you know nan de Guerre prohibit you know what was happening in New York you know the list goes on but that's my sort of my ambition is to sort of project that into the next ten years or something that's like oh wow it came from this school of thought this is where he was you know thinking but now we have gallery shows and you know X Y Z there's these things that came from this sort of you know same sort of ethos and culture somebody just just take a pen and just draw the line 16 times be like oh and then to me is about confidence in the movement and then they can go further alright I got it you

Channel: HYPEBEAST

Views: 497,921

Rating: 4.91396 out of 5

Keywords: hypebeast, virgil abloh, streetwear art movement, hypebeast magazine, off white, hbtv

Id: KLq-0QU0VXo

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ilike-blur-face]

If I had a “dollar” for every time he said “you know”, I’d have a pair of offwhite “prestos”

[u/[deleted]]

“Sorry but Virgil is the least artistic influence in streetwear”