Abloh completes his undergraduate degree in civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. (In 2015, he would return to design commemorative tees for the university.) Rumor has it that on the day of his graduation, he skips his final critique to take a meeting with Kanye West’s then-manager John Monopoly. West and Abloh begin officially working together soon after.

Abloh and West become interns at Fendi in Rome. Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke recently told The New York Times, “I was really impressed with how [Abloh and West] brought a whole new vibe to the studio and were disruptive in the best way. Virgil could create a metaphor and a new vocabulary to describe something as old-school as Fendi. I have been following his career ever since.

Abloh and West, along with a crew of famous friends, make the rounds at Paris Fashion Week, turning heads in the process. They’re photographed by Tommy Ton for Style.com outside of the Comme des Garçons show in what becomes a widely circulated pic. Abloh tells W magazine, “We were a generation that was interested in fashion and weren’t supposed to be there. We saw this as our chance to participate and make current culture. In a lot of ways, it felt like we were bringing more excitement than the industry was.”

Abloh art directs the album Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and West, an achievement that earns him a Grammy nomination. The album cover is designed by Riccardo Tisci, then the creative director of Givenchy, a role Abloh was rumored to be up for after Tisci’s departure in 2017.

Abloh shutters Pyrex and founds Off-White, a multi-platform creative endeavor based in Milan. Its main medium is fashion. At Off-White, he combines ideas of streetwear, luxury, art, music, and travel, defining the brand simply as, “the gray area between black and white as the color Off-White.” From the get-go, hovering quotation marks become Abloh’s signature In 2014, Abloh launches womenswear for Off-White and begins showing his men’s and women’s collections during Paris Fashion Week. Apart from his work at Louis Vuitton, Abloh serves as the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013.

Abloh re-creates 10 of Nike’s iconic silhouettes in a work-in-progress style, each adorned with a safety tag around the laces. The limited release leaves the sneaker market hungry for more, and Abloh hosts panels and workshops with Nike and additional releases throughout the year. Even with the announcement of a collaborative exhibition with Takashi Murakami opening at Gagosian; the release of his first song; the opening of his New York store; the British Fashion Award for Urban Luxe Brand; and collaborations with Warby Parker, Jacob the Jeweler, and Jimmy Choo, the biggest news for Abloh in 2017 is The Ten, his sneaker partnership with Nike.

Abloh is named the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections, stepping into the role vacated by his friend and mentor Kim Jones. Virgil drops OFF-WHITE collab with IKEA. IKEA has revealed some of the products set to feature in its long-awaited furniture collection by fashion designer Virgil Abloh, including slogan-covered rugs and a cabinet for storing and displaying sneakers. The range, which was revealed to be named Markerad, is aimed at students and young people moving into their first homes. Virgil Abloh and IKEA's Henrik Most unveiled a selection of prototypes in a live-stream broadcast Comprising a mix of furniture and home accessories, many of the designs in the collection appear similar to traditional IKEA pieces. But Abloh has added subtle adjustments that he likens to pop art – a movement that thrives on irony. "The essence of the project is not just us designing something cool for cool's sake," said Abloh. "I'm trying to invest an artistic quality in things that you already have." One of the products unveiled was Door Stop Interruption, a simple wooden chair with a bright red doorstop on one of its legs Among these "elevated" designs is Door Stop Interruption. The product is a simple wooden chair, but it comes with a bright red doorstop that slot onto one of its legs."When we were stuck in the beginning looking through what we wanted to do, I had this image of an airplane wheel and two doorstops to stop it," said the designer. "I just posed the question that the person who designed the wheel must think he is God's gift to earth," he added. "But the person who designed the doorstop is equally impactful because it can stop a plane in its tracks." Also in the collection is a glass cabinet with a wooden frame, to offer millennials a place to store and showcase sneakers. Virgil Abloh also directed music video for Lil Uzi Vert. The official music video for Lil Uzi Vert’s emo-rap banger, “XO TOUR Llif3” came out six months after the track’s initial release. Shot by Virgil Abloh in the 10th arrondisement of Paris, the video was controversial for its use of Arabic subtitles that bore no relevance to the lyrics from the song. It currently sits at 190 million views.

Also in the collection is a glass cabinet with a wooden frame, to offer millennials a place to store and showcase sneakers. Abloh said he came up with the idea for the credenza after forgetting about items that he owns. He hopes it will help to reduce unnecessary purchases. "This is a means of curating your junk drawer or curating the most coveted things," he said. "At least they're stored and they become an art object. I think that will have an impact on our consumption level."The cabinet has red handles that are shaped like nails, as a reference to the tools needed to assemble IKEA's flat-pack furniture. The collection will also include Abloh's take on the IKEA Frakta bag. A hotly anticipated item in the series is Abloh's take on the Frakta bag. Although not featured in the showcase, it could be spotted in the background. It has also appeared on social media, shown in beige instead of blue, emblazoned with the text "SCULPTURE".Quotation slogans, which are a signature of Abloh's previous work, also adorn two rug designs revealed. The word "BLUE", made from letters that are hand-shaved in blue textile, decorates a bold red design. The other is a decorative Persian rug covered with the text "KEEP OFF".

Virgil Abloh has a lot on his plate for 2019, including a career-spanning exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, a slew of eagerly-awaited runway shows and plenty of major collaborations. Having already offered a sneak peek at Off-White’s Fall/Winter 2019 womenswear offerings, the creative took to social media to showcase the invitations for his menswear presentation and air some thoughts on upcoming projects. “My narrative for 2019 is to finally reveal the rationale that exists underneath my creative outputs as one body of work,” Abloh begins. Presumably, this consistent design ethos will be unveiled via “a published book summarizing the last 20~ years of work,” launching in tandem with Abloh’s MCA Chicago exhibition. The designer also explained the inspiration behind the invitations for his upcoming Off-White™ FW19 menswear showcase. The mineral water brand has signed up the American designer to help transform its design process in the aim of making it more sustainable, WWD reports. As well as seeking solutions for a more environmentally responsible future, Virgil Abloh will also help design upcoming Evian products. The first joint project between Virgil Abloh and Evian is expected to launch during the first two months of 2019.