Off-White pays tribute to Virgil Abloh with a beautiful, supermodel-filled show

Late last year, the fashion world was shaken by the news that beloved designer Virgil Abloh had passed away after an illness that he had been battling privately. The death of the creative director of Louis Vuitton men's and the founder of Off-White was an unimaginable loss to the industry that he helped to change – and last night, the fashion world paid tribute to him once again in a very special Off-White catwalk show.

Taking place on the opening night of Paris Fashion Week, the tribute featured the world's biggest supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, the Hadid sisters, Adut Akech, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, and many more. There was also a surprise appearance from none other than Serena Williams on the catwalk, while huge names including Rihanna sat in the audience.

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The couture-filled collection, entitled 'Spaceship Earth: an Imaginary Experience' is Abloh's final for the brand he founded. However, he will continue to influence the collections that are to come, with the team leaning on his words for inspiration.

"The number of ideas that we have directly from him — that were unmanageable on a daily, weekly and monthly basis [through WhatsApp] — it’s endless," Off-White CEO Andrea Grilli told the Business of Fashion. "This is the legacy that we’re going to build around."

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The role of Off-White creative director will, for the time being at least, not be filled, and there will instead be a creative collective in place, the company confirmed. It is expected that this could follow a similar format to what is happening at Jean Paul Gaultier, where guest designers create one-off collections alongside the permanent team.

Last night's show was an emotional moment for the models on stage, and the celebrities and fashion editors on the front row, many of whom were extremely close to Abloh.

Catch up on more from the autumn/winter 2022 shows here.

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