LVMH acquires majority stake in Virgil Abloh's Off-White brand

20 July 2021

LVMH has acquired a majority stake in Off-White LLC.

Virgil Abloh

The French corporation and conglomerate - which specialises in high-end goods - has bagged a 60 per cent stake in the firm that owns Virgil Abloh‘s Off-White brand.

The designer will keep his title as creative director of the streetwear brand and still has 40 per cent ownership.

Working alongside LVMH, the team will grow Off-White's existing brands and new ones, too.

News of the deal comes after Virgil recently hailed his autumn/winter 2021 collection as "grown-up".

The fashion label's CEO debuted his upcoming line during Haute Couture Week in Paris, France - with Bella Hadid walking the runway in a striking blue gown - and the fashion muse admitted Off-White has matured since his last collection.

He said: “It’s rebelling against the younger version of myself.

“This is the first time I’ve actually said that. Normally I say I’m trying to stay the younger version of myself. But in a weird ‘ta-dah’ way, it’s like: Off-White should be adult!”

The artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection did a lot of growing up himself amid the COVID-19 pandemic which seeped into his designs.

He added: “If I were to look at my body of work, especially through the year off, I think I’ve grown up the most in the shortest amount of time. And that is super apparent when I look at the work. I see a maturity."

Meanwhile, Virgil previously revealed he started his fashion brand to pursue architecture.

The 40-year-old designer received a master's degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology but created Off-White to "investigate" architecture instead of following a traditional route.

He said: "I don't believe in disciplines. We can use our architecture brain and do many things, not just what we're supposed to do.

"I started a career to make a brand to do architecture rather than just work at SOM, or wherever I would have naturally gone starting my architecture career. I made a brand to sort of investigate architecture in a way."