Press "Enter" to skip to content

Virgil Abloh Is in the Midst of Backlash for Lack of Diversity on His Off-White Staff

The designer shared images from an Off-White staff party that looked entirely absent of people of color.

Photo: Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images

Barely two months have passed since Virgil Abloh was the target of backlash for statements he made in The New Yorker about his Michael Jackson-inspired Fall 2019 menswear collection for Louis Vuitton; the runway show coincided with the wide release of “Leaving Neverland,” a documentary that divulged explicit details surrounding the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson. 

Now, the CEO of Off-White is back in hot water for images and videos he shared Tuesday on his Instagram Stories of a Christmas party he threw for over 100 Off-White staffers. Instagram users were quick to point out that they didn’t spot one person of color — and more specifically, one Black person — on the Milan-based team. 

Screenshot via Instagram
Screenshot via Instagram

Users used the comments section of Abloh’s most recent post to express their frustration, with one user saying, “So you clearly don’t believe in diversity.” 

Another user called for Black people to boycott Off-White under the same post, saying, “Black people please learn not [to] support labels and businesses [that] don’t support us. 136 members [at the Christmas party] and not one person of color, he clearly sees no value in the creatives that look like him.”

Abloh’s Off-White is now among a number of fashion houses that have been called out for their lack of diversity and cultural missteps in recent months, including Prada for its racially insensitive monkey trinkets, Gucci for its “blackface” balaclava scandal (which ultimately required that house collaborator Dapper Dan get involved) and Burberry‘s “noose” hoodie controversy. As a result of the customer- and fan-driven feedback they’ve received, all three luxury labels have established diversity initiatives to reassure consumers of their intention to change.

The uniformity of whiteness at Abloh’s Off-White Christmas party seems particularly striking, given he made history with his role at Louis Vuitton, marking the French house’s first Black creative director. Plus, throughout his time in the spotlight, Abloh has remained a champion of Black culture and the Black youth who propel it, pushing for it to be taken seriously in the fashion world. At the top of the year, the designer discussed the significance of a 10-year-old photo of him and Kanye West, among others, at Paris Fashion Week. “What makes that photo resurfacing interesting is I couldn’t even get into a Louis Vuitton show at that point, you know,” he said. “Like, going into a store sometimes could have been difficult.” 

Though Abloh has yet to respond to the fervent negative responses to his seemingly all-white Off-White staff, the understandable and righteous frustration may get lost in all the praise of Abloh’s perceived ability to capture the “cool kid” aesthetic. You may recall that this is similar to Demna Gvasalia’s past faux pas, when he did not include a single model of color on the runway for his debut collection as artistic director at Balenciaga back in 2016. 

Stay current on the latest trends, news and people shaping the fashion industry. Sign up for our daily newsletter


Source: Fashionista.com

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *