SPRING 2023 READY TO WEAR OFF WHITE

Credit: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com

By tomorrow, Virgil Abloh would have turned 42. Ibrahim Kamara said of the Off-White show tonight: "It's about celebrating him and his legacy." Abloh founded the company. Because who could, nobody has taken over Abloh's position at Off-White, but Kamara was appointed the brand's Image and Art Director by CEO Andrea Grilli in April to guide it in the right direction. 

The beauty of Off-White is that you are involved in every single detail of the brand, Kamara said when asked to describe his role, particularly in relation to this collection. Despite the fact that my role is image-based, I was able to conduct research alongside the team as they created this collection.

It's a more expansive role than I anticipated when I took it on, and it's a beautiful role, so I feel extremely lucky.

Abloh started and conceptualized the first parts of this collection prior to his passing in 2021. Kamara claimed that the group had expanded on the original brief, which called for an investigation of the human body. 

He continued, "Virgil was always planning ahead. He appeared to be in a different universe.

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Of course, the show was overhyped. Celebrities were inside, and there were crowds outside. Along for the ride were Jonathan Anderson and Maximilian Davis as well. A group of dancers, mostly from Paris, who were assembled by choreographer Nicolas Huchard and performed to music by Faty Sy Savanet while wearing hole-puckered blue body suits on a carpet of the same color preceded and accompanied the collection. I had assumed the color was a subliminal nod to Marcelo Burlon's part in the Off-White story, but Kamara also made a unique contribution.

The collection creatively adhered to the brief while reinforcing the founding principles. On patched leather dresses and workwear, feminized tailoring, shirtdresses, and the knitwear that was the collection's standout, the holes were used to expose the navel. 

On suiting, stitching was used to create a contour map of the muscles and internal organs beneath; later, printed x-rays performed the same trick on additional suiting and denim. In other words, the clothing was literally wearing an imprint of the body inside. 

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On that knitwear, fine-gauge shells were carefully covered with thin braided ropelets to add more reefs of contour that depicted the bodies below. A great knit menswear suit was also available that was unadorned and reflected the sartorial expression of form while allowing for free and elastic movement.

Puffer jackets, Out Of Office sneakers, and tailoring with slashed and seemingly half-constructed elements all served as visual representations of the very Off-White, unfinished, "work in progress" concept. 

The most popular pair of women's shoes all had heels made of slinky springs, which was amusing but also related to another show-related topic that Kamara mentioned. All of the models had fresh faces, which, according to Kamara, reflected the doors in the set's architecture. 

"The show is a celebration, and it's also about hope," he said. Opening doors is what hope does, and Virgil did this to perfection all the way to the end. Hope always comes true.

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This Off-White collection had just enough elastic potential energy to persuade you that the company, which was also one man's conceptual body of work, is still very much alive, tuned in to the future, and engaged with it. 

This conviction was only strengthened by the staff T-shirts with a Jenny Holzer print that were also distributed to visitors and continued an Abloh-initiated 2017 project to benefit Planned Parenthood.

COLLECTION:

Credit: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com


Credit: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com


Credit: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com


Credit: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com

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