Q&A: Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan chronicles Virgil Abloh's rise to fashion fame
In the years since his 2021 death at just 41, his vision and image still linger. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robin Givhan sheds new light on how Abloh ascended the ranks of one of the top luxury fashion houses and captivated the masses with her latest book, 'Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh.'
In the book out Tuesday, Givhan documents Abloh's early life growing up as the son of Ghanaian immigrants in Rockford, Illinois, his days as graduate student studying architecture and his working relationship and friendship with Kanye West.
Before taking the helm of Louis Vuitton as the house's first Black menswear creative director, Abloh threw himself into his creative pursuits including fine art, architecture, DJing and design. Abloh remixed his interests with his marketing genius and channeled it into fashion with streetwear labels like Been Trill and Pyrex Vision.
These endeavors were the launchpad for his luxury streetwear label Off-White, known for its white diagonal lines, quotation marks, red zip ties and clean typeface. Off-White led to Abloh's collaboration with Ikea, where he designed a rug with 'KEEP OFF' in all-white letters and also with Nike where he deconstructed and reenvisioned 10 of Nike's famous shoe silhouettes.
Throughout his ventures, Abloh built a following of sneakerheads and so-called hypebeasts who liked his posts, bought into his brands and showed up in droves outside his fashion shows. Social media made Abloh accessible to his fans and he tapped into that.
Off-White had built a loyal following and some critics. Givhan, a Washington Post senior critic-at-large, openly admits that she was among the latter early on. Givhan said she was fascinated that Abloh's popularity was more than his fashion.
'For me, there was something of a disconnect really,' she said. 'That here was this person who had clearly had an enormous impact within the fashion industry and outside of the fashion industry, and yet it wasn't really about the clothing. It was about something else.'
For her latest project, Givhan spoke with The Associated Press on how she approached each of Abloh's creative undertakings and his legacy during a period of heightened racial tension in America. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: Tell me why you felt it was important to include the context of what was happening at the time Abloh was growing up as well as on his rise up through the fashion industry, with him ultimately ending up at Louis Vuitton.
GIVHAN: Fashion doesn't just sort of happen in a vacuum. People are the product of their parents, their family, their environment, their timing, their interests, all of those things.
I always like to see, what is swirling around people when they make certain decisions? What is sort of in the water that you're absorbing, that you are not even conscious that you're absorbing it.
AP: Can you talk about the process of writing about all of his creative endeavors and how they shaped his career?
GIVHAN: The skater culture — in part because it was such a sort of subculture that also had a very specific aesthetic and was such a deep part of the whole world of streetwear — and then the DJing part intrigued me because so much of his work as a designer seems to reflect a kind of DJ ethos, where you're not creating the melody and you're not creating the lyrics. You're taking these things that already exist and you're remixing them and you're responding to the crowd and the crowd is informing you. And so much of that, to me, could also be used to describe the way that he thought about fashion and the way that he designed.
AP: What role would you say that Virgil has had in the fashion industry today?
GIVHAN: He certainly raised the question within the industry of what is the role of the creative director? How much more expansive is that role? … And I do think he has really forced the question of how are we defining luxury? Like what is a luxury brand? And is it something that is meant to sort of have this lasting impact? Is it supposed to be this beautifully crafted item? Or is it really just a way of thinking about value and beauty and desirability? And if it's those things, then really it becomes something that is quite sort of quite personal and can be quite based on the community in which you live.
AP: How did he use social media to his advantage and to help catapult his career?
GIVHAN: He really used social media as a way of connecting with people as opposed to just sort of using it as kind of a one-way broadcast. He was telling his side of things, but he was also listening to other people. He was listening to that feedback.
That's also what made him this larger-than-life person for a lot of people, because not only was he this creative person who was in conversation with fans and contemporaries, but he was this creative person inside. He was this creative person at the very top of the fashion industry. For a lot of people, the idea that you could ostensibly have a conversation with someone at that level, and they would seemingly pull back the curtain and be transparent about things — that was really quite powerful.
AP: You write about his relationship to Kanye in the book. Were you able to get any input from him on their relationship for the book?
GIVHAN: Their individual ambitions, aesthetic ideas and curiosity kind of propelled them forward in separate directions. I did reach out to Kanye after a lot of the reporting because he obviously is this thread that is woven throughout the book. And, ultimately, he elected not to engage.
But I was lucky enough to get access to an unpublished conversation that Virgil had had around, I think it was 2016-ish, where he talked at length about his working relationship with Kanye and sort of the differences between them and the similarities and the ways in which … Kanye inspired him and sort of the jet fuel that he got from that relationship.
More than anything, because Virgil's personality was in so many ways kind of the opposite of Kanye's, that for every door that Kanye was kind of pounding on, Virgil was able to politely sort of walk through.
AP: Why do you think his legacy continues to persist?
GIVHAN: For one, he had such an enormous output of work. I think there's a lot of it to consider. Also, sadly, because his career was cut so short that there is this sense of someone who sort of stops speaking mid-sentence.
I've been thinking about how Virgil might have responded, how his creativity might have responded to this moment because so much shifted post-George Floyd that like this is another inflection point and it makes me wonder, 'OK, how would he have responded today?' And with the person who said, 'I'm not a rebel and I'm not a flame thrower,' would he have picked up some matches? I don't know.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What the key witnesses at Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial told the jury
NEW YORK (AP) — The jury deliberating at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial heard testimony from 34 witnesses over the last seven weeks. They included Combs' ex-girlfriends Cassie and Jane, who said he forced them into drug-fueled sex marathons they called 'freak-offs' and 'hotel nights,' a sex worker they knew as 'The Punisher,' personal assistants who said they witnessed his violence and facilitated his sexual exploits, and other women who accused him of abuse. All of the witnesses were called by the prosecution. Combs waived his right to testify — not unusual for criminal defendants — and his defense team declined to call any witnesses of their own. Instead, they sought to undercut the allegations via cross-examination during the prosecution's case. Here are some of the key witnesses and what they said: Cassie Cassie, the R&B singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura, dated Combs from 2007 to 2018 after he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label. Over four days, she told jurors Combs beat her and ordered her to have 'disgusting' sex with male sex workers during multi-day 'freak-offs.' She also said Combs raped her after she said she was ending their relationship. In 2016, security cameras captured Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Cassie as she left his room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The video was shown repeatedly throughout the trial. A hotel guard testified that Combs paid $100,000 to hide the video. It remained secret until CNN aired it in May 2024. Jane Jane, testifying under a pseudonym, dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest last September. The model said she repeatedly told Combs she didn't want to have sex with other men but that he kept pressuring her. She said she felt 'obligated' in part because he paid her rent. Last year, Jane said, Combs put her in a chokehold, punched her in the face and forced her into an encounter with a sex worker. She said he told her: 'You're not going to ruin my night like this.' Both women said Combs threatened to release their sex videos if they refused his demands. Kid Cudi Rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Cassie were dating. His Porsche was firebombed a few weeks later. Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, said he knew Combs 'had something to do' with it, but Combs told him he wasn't involved. Cudi said he thought Combs was lying when he claimed he knew nothing about the car. Daniel Phillip Daniel Phillip, an exotic dancer involved in 'freak-offs' from 2012 to 2014, said he was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and barked orders at them. He recalled the hip-hop mogul telling them: 'You need to rub more baby oil on each other. You don't have enough on.' Another time, Phillip said, Cassie jumped into his lap — her body shaking — after it sounded like Combs was slapping and slamming her around an adjoining room. He said he stopped meeting the couple after seeing Combs throw a bottle at her before dragging her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed. 'The Punisher' Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer known by the stage name 'The Punisher,' said Cassie used the ruse of a birthday striptease to lure him to his first 'freak-off.' He recalled seeing baby oil bottles in bowls of water and getting handed $800 in cash. Later, after Combs watched him have sex with Cassie, he said he was handed $1,200 more. Combs kept his face hidden during their initial meetings, and Hayes said he didn't realize it was him until he saw a message on a hotel room TV screen that said: 'Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.' Capricorn Clark Ex-Combs employee Capricorn Clark said Combs came to her home waving a gun the day of the break-in and demanded she get dressed and go with him because 'we're going to kill Cudi.' After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told her she had to convince Cudi 'it wasn't me.' 'If you don't convince him of that I'll kill all you,' he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, Clark recalled. Mia A former personal assistant testifying under the pseudonym 'Mia' said Combs put his hand up her dress and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009, forced her to perform oral sex on another occasion and raped her in 2010. His lawyers say the claims are false. Confronted on cross examination with loving texts she sent Combs long after her employment had ended, she said: 'I was still brainwashed.' Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan Cassie's friend Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan testified that Combs dangled her over the railing of Cassie's 17th floor balcony and threw her onto patio furniture in September 2016, leaving her bruised and traumatized. But defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland exposed holes in her story on cross examination, showing that Combs was on tour on the East Coast in 2016 when she said she suffered the bruises shown to jurors in a picture she had taken of her injuries. George Kaplan George Kaplan said he'd toss out liquor bottles and drugs and clean up baby oil from Combs' hotel rooms. He said he quit after seeing Combs fighting with Cassie but didn't report it to authorities. Kaplan said he still sends Combs birthday greetings and invited him to his wedding. Kaplan told jurors he was grateful to work for Combs and still has 'a great deal of respect' for him. David James David James testified that Combs had him stock hotel rooms with baby oil, condoms, Viagra and other supplies while he worked up to 20-hour days as a personal assistant from May 2007 to May 2009. James said he saw Combs with three handguns on his lap as they drove to confront Combs' record industry rival Suge Knight in 2008. On another occasion, he testified, Combs asked him to bring his iPod from his residence to his hotel and, when nobody answered the door, he went in and saw Cassie on the bed in a white comforter and a 'completely naked' man he did not recognize who walked 'across the room and kind of scurried away.' Brendan Paul Brendan Paul, who worked as a personal assistant to Combs for about 18 months ending in March 2024, said he bought drugs for Combs including cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and marijuana. His employment ended when he was arrested at a Miami, Florida airport for possession of cocaine, which he testified came from Combs' room. Deonte Nash Combs' lawyers confronted celebrity stylist Deonte Nash with messages he sent expressing love for Combs. Some of them were from 2019 and 2020, two years after their professional relationship ended. A reluctant witness for prosecutors, he nonetheless gave them insight into the relationship between Cassie and Combs, saying Cassie was 'quite often' left with bruises to her legs, arms and neck, besides an incident when Combs left her with a large, bloody gash above her eye during a beating. Dawn Richard Dawn Richard, a singer in the Bad Boy Records groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, testified that she witnessed Combs acting violently toward Cassie, including swinging at her with a skillet and beating her in 2009. She says Combs made a threat, which she took as a death threat, if she didn't keep quiet. Combs' lawyers contend Richard's story has been inconsistent and that she is motivated to speak against him because she is suing him
Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose multimillion-dollar ministry and huge audience dwindled following his prostitution scandals, has died. He was 90. Swaggart death was announced Tuesday on his public Facebook page. A cause wasn't immediately given, though Swaggart had been in ill health. The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of successful TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and '90s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience. Swaggart encapsulated his downfall in a tearful 1988 sermon, in which he wept and apologized but made no reference to his connection to a prostitute. 'I have sinned against you,' Swaggart told parishioners nationwide. 'I beg you to forgive me.' He announced his resignation from the Assemblies of God later that year, shortly after the church said it was defrocking him for rejecting punishment it had ordered for 'moral failure.' The church had wanted him to undergo a two-year rehabilitation program, including not preaching for a full year. Swaggart said at the time that he knew dismissal was inevitable but insisted he had no choice but to separate from the church to save his ministry and Bible college. From poverty and oil fields to a household name Swaggart grew up poor, the son of a preacher, in a music-rich family. He excelled at piano and gospel music, playing and singing with talented cousins who took different paths: rock-'n'-roller Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. In his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana, Swaggart said he first heard the call of God at age 8. The voice gave him goose bumps and made his hair tingle, he said. 'Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theater,' he said in a 1985 interview with the Jacksonville Journal-Courier in Illinois. 'I felt better inside. Almost like taking a bath.' He preached and worked part time in oil fields until he was 23. He then moved entirely into his ministry: preaching, playing piano and singing gospel songs with the barrelhouse fervor of cousin Lewis at Assemblies of God revivals and camp meetings. Swaggart started a radio show, a magazine, and then moved into television, with outspoken views. He called Roman Catholicism 'a false religion. It is not the Christian way,' and claimed that Jews suffered for thousands of years 'because of their rejection of Christ.' 'If you don't like what I say, talk to my boss,' he once shouted as he strode in front of his congregation at his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, where his sermons moved listeners to speak in tongues and stand up as if possessed by the Holy Spirit. Swaggart's messages stirred thousands of congregants and millions of TV viewers, making him a household name by the late 1980s. Contributors built Jimmy Swaggart Ministries into a business that made an estimated $142 million in 1986. His Baton Rouge complex still includes a worship center and broadcasting and recording facilities. The scandals that led to Swaggart's ruin Swaggart's downfall came in the late 1980s as other prominent preachers faced similar scandals. Swaggart said publicly that his earnings were hurt in 1987 by the sex scandal surrounding rival televangelist Jim Bakker and a former church secretary at Bakker's PTL ministry organization. The following year, Swaggart was photographed at a hotel with Debra Murphree, an admitted prostitute who told reporters that the two did not have sex but that the preacher had paid her to pose nude. She later repeated the claim — and posed nude — for Penthouse magazine. The surveillance photos that crippled Swaggart's career apparently stemmed from his rivalry with preacher Marvin Gorman, whom Swaggart had accused of sexual misdeeds. Gorman hired the photographer who captured Swaggart and Murphree on film. Swaggart later paid Gorman $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit over the sexual allegations against Gorman. More trouble came in 1991, when police in California detained Swaggart with another prostitute. The evangelist was charged with driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an unregistered Jaguar. His companion, Rosemary Garcia, said Swaggart became nervous when he saw the police car and weaved when he tried to stuff pornographic magazines under a car seat. Swaggart was later mocked by the late TV comic Phil Hartman, who impersonated him on NBC's 'Saturday Night Live.' Out of the public eye but still in the pulpit The evangelist largely stayed out of the news in later years but remained in the pulpit at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, often joined by his son, Donnie, a fellow preacher. His radio station broadcast church services and gospel music to 21 states, and Swaggart's ministry boasted a worldwide audience on the internet. The preacher caused another brief stir in 2004 with remarks about being 'looked at' amorously by a gay man. 'And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,' Swaggart said, to laughter from the congregation. He later apologized. Swaggart made few public appearances outside his church, save for singing 'Amazing Grace' at the 2005 funeral of Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, a prominent name in state politics for decades. In 2022, he shared memories at the memorial service for Lewis, his cousin and rock 'n' roll pioneer. The pair had released 'The Boys From Ferriday,' a gospel album, earlier that year.
Toronto Sun
5 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
As U.S. bars Bob Vylan from entry, Canada isn't willing to follow suit
English punk duo facing criticism, criminal investigation after leading chants to murder Israeli soldiers during Glastonbury show Bob Vylan performs on the West Holts Stage, during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. England, Saturday, June 28, 2025. Photo by Yui Mok / AP OTTAWA — As the U.S. State Department takes action to bar English punk duo Bob Vylan from entering the United States after a hateful performance at a UK music festival, Canadian authorities aren't willing to follow suit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Calls from across the political spectrum are growing in Canada to exclude the pair from any future visits to this country. 'Death, death to the IDF!' shouted Bob Vylan's vocalist Pascal Robinson-Foster during Saturday's performance at the Glastonbury Festival in southwest England, about 40 km south of Bristol. 'Hell yeah, from the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be — inshallah — it will be free.' Robinson-Foster also complained on stage about 'working for a f***ing Zionist.' Commonly heard at anti-Israel rallies, the 'From the River to the Sea' chant is a call for the extermination of the Jewish State of Israel and its citizens, forcibly extending the Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More The BBC are facing criticism for not cutting the live broadcast, later denouncing the duo's comments as antisemitic and 'utterly unacceptable.' The office of UK PM Keir Starmer said there was 'no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech,' and called on the BBC to explain why Robinson-Foster's hateful comments were broadcast. The fallout from the comments has been swift. Local police opened a criminal investigation while the duo were reportedly dropped by their talent agency. As well, the U.S. State Department revoked their visas, putting a slate of upcoming American shows in jeopardy. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That police investigation also includes Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, who took the stage on Saturday after Bob Vylan. Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, faces terrorism charges after reportedly waving the flag of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah at a show in London last November. Continued hateful comments and repeated accusations of Israel conducting a so-called 'genocide' in Gaza during their April performance at Coachella prompted the contentious trio to be dropped by their U.S. visa sponsor and American booking agent. Hip hop trio Kneecap perform during the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP) Kneecap is scheduled to play three Toronto shows in October. While Bob Vylan have no Canadian shows scheduled, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather are among Canadian politicians calling on the federal government to bar them from future entry to Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Their conduct at Glastonbury should render them inadmissible for entry,' he told the Toronto Sun, adding he's made his views known to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner shared the same sentiments. 'The Liberals should follow the lead of the Labour Party in the UK, denounce their hate speech, and ensure they can't profit off of hate in Canada by denying them entry,' she told the Sun. On Monday, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) joined calls for both Bob Vylan and Kneecap to be barred entry to Canada. 'Kneecap member Mo Chara (Ó hAnnaidh) is facing terrorism-related charges in the UK, and both bands made headlines at the Glastonbury Festival for inciting hate and glorifying violence — conduct that violates Canadian hate speech laws and contradicts our core values,' read a statement posted online. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While inquiries to Public Safety Canada weren't returned by press time, responses from the Canadian Border Services Agency indicated no desire to follow suit. 'The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is not in a position to comment on this specific case,' read a statement, oddly referring the Toronto Sun to the U.S. State Department for comment. 'What we can tell you is the CBSA role is to assess the security risk and admissibility of goods and persons coming to Canada.' Admissibility of travellers, the statement continued, is decided on a 'case-by-case basis' and on information made available at the time of entry. bpassifiume@ X: @bryanpassifiume Toronto Blue Jays World World Toronto Maple Leafs Sunshine Girls
