Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh

This bracing account from Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Givhan (The Battle of Versailles) explores how designer Virgil Abloh, who died of cancer at age 41 in 2021, transformed the fashion world. Growing up in Rockford, Ill., Abloh straddled disparate worlds and traditions, embracing hip-hop fashion as enthusiastically as he did the preppy uniforms he wore to his Catholic high school. An architect by training, Abloh began his fashion career in 2012 with the T-shirt brand Pyrex Vision, for which he created pieces that generated meaning by placing old items in new contexts. For instance, Givhan argues that Abloh’s customizations of Ralph Lauren flannels juxtaposed his background as the son of Ghanaian immigrants with the brand’s blue-blooded reputation, implying that “the [American] Dream was more valuable because of his contribution to it.” Elsewhere, Givhan offers detailed accounts of Abloh’s working relationship with Kanye West, whom Abloh designed stage sets and album covers for, and his appointment as the first Black artistic director of Louis Vuitton, where he reimagined luxury for a more diverse customer base. The sharp blend of biography, cultural history, and fashion criticism makes effective use of Abloh’s story to speak to a recent tectonic shift inside the fashion industry as it reconsiders the meaning of luxury and who gets to decide. The result is an excellent testament to Abloh’s enduring influence. Agent: David Kuhn and Nate Muscato, Aevitas Creative Management. (June)