PARIS (Reuters) – Virgil Abloh, fashion’s highest profile Black designer and the creative mind behind Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection, died on Sunday of cancer, Vuitton’s owner LVMH said.
LVMH said Abloh, 41, had been battling cancer privately for years.
“Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom,” LVMH’s billionaire boss Bernard Arnault said in a statement.
Abloh, a U.S. national who also worked as a DJ and visual artist, had been men’s artistic director for Louis Vuitton since March 2018.
In July this year, LVMH expanded his role, giving him a mandate to launch new brands and partner with existing ones in a variety of sectors beyond fashion.
(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; editing by John Irish)
