A trained architect, Abloh founded his own line of luxury streetwear clothing under the moniker Pyrex Vision in 2012, which he transformed into the Milan based fashion label Off-White in 2013.

Abloh was appointed artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilities across the LVMH brand in early 2021.

The first African-American to be artistic director at a French luxury fashion house when he joined LVMH in 2018,[1][2] Abloh was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world that year.

[10] When Abloh was attending IIT, there was a building on campus under construction designed by the architect Rem Koolhaas (who had also worked on runway collections for Prada).

[7] Later that year, Abloh and West's artistic partner, Don C, launched a retail store, called the RSVP Gallery,[14] located in Chicago.

[7] In 2011 West asked him to serve as the artistic director for his 2011 collaborative album with Jay-Z Watch the Throne, earning the designer a Grammy nomination.

What my goal has been is to add an intellectual layer to it and make it credible Abloh founded his first fashion house and second business overall in 2013 with the high-end streetwear brand Off-White, designing a logo inspired by Ben Kelly.

[17][7] Based in Milan, Italy, the company was described by Abloh as "the gray area between black and white as the color off-white" to investors and fashion critics.

[3] Abloh said his first Off-White collection was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's floating glass home, Farnsworth House, and presented it with references to the Baroque artist Caravaggio and the early 20th century German design studio The Bauhaus.

[18] The brand lead generated widespread attention for his apparel beginning in Paris, then expanding to China, Japan, and the United States.

[19] By the end of 2018, an index of sales and consumer sentiment ranked Off-White as the hottest label in the world, surpassing Gucci.

[19] Abloh worked on designs for chairs, coffee tables, beds, storage cabinets, mirrors, and carpets as part of his collaboration with IKEA.

[22] During the rise in neo-nationalism in 2017 Abloh worked with conceptual artist Jenny Holzer to create a line emphasizing the positive aspects of immigration, cultural integration, and globalization.

[29] Playboi Carti, Steve Lacy, A$AP Nast, Dev Hynes, and Kid Cudi walked the runway for Abloh's debut Vuitton show.

[32] In March 2019, Abloh collaborated with IKEA to start making furniture for millennials, ranging from cabinets, rugs, coffee tables, and chairs.

Abloh incorporated different elements of style, such as his quotation marks around certain words and putting it on different articles of clothing, and in this case different types of furniture.

This collection contained a variety of workout clothes ranging from; matching leggings and sports bras, athletic sweaters, and crop tops.

The collection incorporated some of Abloh's signature designs by including the Off-White yellow sign wrapping around the waist of the pants and bottom of the sports bras.

I’m interested in using my platform as one of a very small group of African-American males to design a house, to sort of show people in a poetic way.

Abloh was featured in conversation with his friend and frequent collaborator Takashi Murakami on the cover of the fall 2018 issue of Cultured magazine.

[47][48][49][50][51] Abloh showcased an installation and billboard commission at the Spazio Maiocchi in Milan, Italy where he gave a speech on streetwear becoming "...the next global art movement”.

[55][56] This show featured a large scale sculpture of Kanye West's Yeezus cover art and repeated photographs of Chief Keef wearing a Supreme t-shirt designed by Abloh.

[69] In June 2020, Abloh designed the original cover for Pop Smoke album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.

[70] Abloh also worked on album art for artists ASAP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert's Luv Is Rage 2,[71] Kanye West's Yeezus,[72] Kid Cudi, Travis Scott and Westside Gunn.

[81][82] The originality of Off-White's logo design with its alternating parallel diagonal lines has been contested by a number of parties, including Ben Kelly, who popularized this graphic in the early 1980s.

[87] Abloh also received criticism in early 2019 when images of his Off-White team suggested a lack of cultural diversity at his head office.

[90] On the March 2020 launch of his collaboration with Japanese streetwear designer Nigo, Abloh retracted his earlier comments clarifying that he was only riffing, describing himself as a novice.

[101] Also that year, with Nike he finished the redesign and renovations of the Boys and Girls Club facility in East Garfield Park, Chicago.

[4][114][115] With the family's permission, LVMH paid tribute to Abloh at their planned November 30 spin-out fashion show in Miami, with a theme of "Virgil was here".

[117] Abloh's funeral service took place on December 6, 2021, in Chicago, with Drake, Rihanna, West, Kardashian, Kid Cudi, Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean, Vic Mensa, Lauryn Hill, Don C, and Jerry Lorenzo in attendance amongst his family and other close friends.