No More Rulers / Virgil Abloh

Abloh-isms is a collection of essential quotations from American fashion designer, DJ, and stylist Virgil Abloh, who has established himself as a major creative figure in the worlds of pop culture and art. Abloh began his career as Kanye West’s creative director before founding the luxury streetwear label Off-White and becoming artistic director for Louis Vuitton, making Abloh the first American of African descent to hold that title at a French fashion house. Defying categorization, Abloh’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, most notably in a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Gathered from interviews and other sources, this selection of compelling and memorable quotations from the designer reveals his thoughts on a wide range of subjects, including creativity, passion, innovation, race, and what it means to be an artist of his generation. Lively and thought-provoking, these quotes reflect Abloh’s unique perspective as a trailblazer in his fields.

Select quotations from the book:

• “I believe that coincidence is key, but coincidence is energies coming towards each other. You have to be moving to meet it.”

• “Life is collaboration. Where I think art can be sort of misguided is that it propagates this idea of itself as a solo love affair—one person, one idea, no one else involved.”

• “Black influence has created a new ecosystem, which can grow and support different types of life that we couldn’t before.”

• “Like it or not, irrelevance is death.”