Who is Virgil Abloh? Most of us never really knew the man, aside from the face he allowed the public to glimpse. Abloh was a serial collaborator who practically redefined that term, a renegade thinker with an unwavering vision.
Simultaneously, Abloh was too humble to let the world know that he was privately suffering from a rare form of cancer that eventually took his life at the all-too-young age of 41.
But Abloh was also perpetually online. An early adopter of Instagram, he'd been posting since at least 2012 and over 4,500 posts litter Abloh's eponymous account, which remains untouched since his passing in November 2021.
As part of the new "Infinite Scrolls" series inaugurated on the Highsnobiety Instagram, we dug into the dormant archive of the late Off-White™ founder and Louis Vuitton director, taking a studied look at the man who changed the fashion world.
For a long time it was some variation of "Typing..." but Virgil Abloh's Instagram bio now reads, "a semi-chronological document of ideas." That's a pretty accurate summation of the 10 years held within the account.
Poring back through these archives is the closest thing to walking through a Virgil Abloh museum, until one is inevitably erected somewhere (what's taking so long, Rockford?)
Anyone can do this, of course, and you can that we aren't the first by the comments left by other travelers exploring the same route. It's simply a matter of how much free time you have to scroll down, down, down to the root of Abloh's 4,514 uploads and how much Abloh means to you.
To us, he means quite a bit.
If you're an Abloh obsessive, you likely won't find much that'll surprise you, but the point of this archeological hunt isn't to unearth hidden fragments of Abloh's life.
It's merely stroll down a very long memory lane, where the journey is much more important than the destination.
Notable snaps crop up with startling frequency. One 2013 photo shows a young Virgil Abloh, Heron Preston, and Pusha T posing together in front of a shared trailer. In others, Abloh shows off his new kicks or T-shirts like any other 2012 sneakerhead.
As you swim through the filter-tinged memories, snippets of Abloh's design practice bubble up to the surface.
You comprehend the growth of Been Trill and Pyrex in slow motion, watching as Abloh grows from upstart impresario to world-renowned fashion ingenue on the strength of his friends, his marketing savviness, and his graphic design mastery.
There's Abloh wearing Supreme with Céline or Rick Owens, demonstrating an early aptitude at the luxury-streetwear mix that he achieved brilliantly with Off-White™ and consummated with Louis Vuitton.
Decade-old comments from Matthew M. Williams and A$AP Mob members are mixed in with ordinary admirers as the years pile on and Abloh's star shines brighter.
One of the remarkable takeaways: the Virgil Ablohs in 2011 and 2021 were remarkably similar. Obviously, the latter man was wizened, experienced, established.
But he was never any less hungry to overachieve or excited by the sheer prospect of fresh creative endeavors.
To be clear, you can't get to know anyone just by skimming the selective stuff they post on social media.
But, in the case of contemporary creatives and especially with an Always Online person like Virgil Abloh, this sort of research opens a small window into their soul.
You can't pass through but you can glimpse the micro and macro moments that made them who they are.
