“Just Point Yourself in the Direction of Your Dreams”—Remembering Virgil Abloh’s First Off

Off-White, spring 2016 reaady-to-wear Photo: Courtesy of Off-White C/O Virgil Abloh

Off-White, spring 2016 reaady-to-wear Photo: Courtesy of Off-White C/O Virgil Abloh

Editor’s Note: In honor of Vogue Runway’s 10th anniversary, our writers are penning odes to the most memorable spring 2016 shows. Up first: Virgil Abloh’s runway debut with Off-White.

Off-White was already generating significant heat—buzz, fascination, and yes, skepticism—ahead of Virgil Abloh’s first show , which took place on his 35th birthday. The location, Galerie Joseph, on rue de Turenne in a northern corner of the Marais, looked like a Paris atelier crossed with a Soho loft.

Small and intimate compared to what the Off-White shows would become, the contemporary space helped concentrate the anticipatory energy