Virgil Abloh says the fashion industry "wasn't particularly welcoming" a decade ago.
Virgil Abloh
The chief executive of Louis Vuitton's menswear launched his career as an intern at Fendi in 2009, and he has opened up on his early days in the business as he reflected on meeting Kanye West at as show in Paris 10 years ago.
He told Dazed: ""It wasn't particularly welcoming but the irony was that there was no security at the door of that Comme des Garçons show we wanted to get into.
"It was almost like, 'Why would you come to a fashion show?' It would be like walking into some random hotel conference for doorknobs and sitting down."
A decade later, everything has changed for Abloh, and he insisted he doesn't mind seeing other brands trying to put their own spin on his street fashion style.
He added: "I always try to look at the positive side and so when I do see brands adopting a new mode of design that's not traditional and is actually inauthentic, to me it's validation that we ultimately changed the atmosphere of design.
"What I like to think is that the doors are now open to young people to work in these places, to help them do it in an authentic way."
Indeed, the 39-year-old designer is now looking to the next 10 years and seeing how he and his team can build on what they've already achieved.
Asked what excites him as we approach the end of the decade, he said: "I'm excited by the next one. I'm excited to see what we do in this next chapter because the strides we made in the last ten years are too insane."