Ironic things are interesting.
— Virgil Abloh
DJing is like a great tasteful art form.
I don't play golf.
Collaboration is not a punchline... I only collaborate with the best in each category.
I try to talk on the phone as little as possible.
I look at culture, and I see what the kids around me are wearing, and I see a particular style. I understand the space between fashion and streetwear.
I believe in the romantic interchange between intellectuals about fashion.
If you look at why people become wack as they get older, it's because they stop doing the things they did that were formative to their work. You can't mentally stay still. You can't not challenge yourself.
When creativity melds together with global issues, I believe you can bring the world together.
People that are able to think in terms of concepts and offer us valuable forms of art are very exciting to me.
There's no line between a designer and consumer.
For me, I analyze the modern girl, the girl that I'm friends with, and they're empowered: They pay their own bills. They have their own style. They wear clothes - the clothes don't wear them.
I interned at Fendi while Michael Burke was overseeing Fendi.
Every idea that comes to mind I execute, or I look for outlets to put out ideas.
The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other, and that's how you create things that are totally new.
Music needs a visual element to make it tangible. So, naturally, there's gonna be a synergy between high-level art direction and high-level albums.
The fashion consumer likes a high-low mix - I want to be a brand that represents that.
My dad is a Ghanaian immigrant, and he wanted a son who was an engineer.
DJing is my only peace of mind. When the phone is off, I play my favourite songs really loud for myself, and I'm not talking to anyone; I'm not managing anything. It's just, like, a time when I can listen to music.
For me, as I was growing up, I studied architecture, I was into music, and I always felt that there was a gap between the things that I loved and consumed and who made them and how they made them.
I'm mostly into buying art from friends. I like to keep it vague - just whatever I find intriguing.
As a young designer in tune with culture, I'm interested in the lifeline of trends.
My general premise is not about selling clothes. If that's your end goal, then all of a sudden everything looks the same, you know - you start designing by numbers.
I think the reason why Off-White exists is to modernize fashion.
I don't come up with ideas in a test tube; I come up with ideas by breaking test tubes. That's how I've always been.
I'm not really into style. I'm more into confidence or having something to say.
My first degree was in structural engineering, which is super-boring.
Art is made in hindsight.
The most important message is to let me just focus on making the most beautiful normcore clothes, but as luxurious as possible.
For me, there's a subtlety in focusing on the right shape of T-shirt and pant. I recognise that it's boring, but the idea is to catch people off-guard and reward them in some valuable way.
I do fashion to tell a narrative.
I like the idea of a fully realized collection with artists.
I don't have to choose between high fashion or streetwear. My brand reminds me that it doesn't have to fit in a box. It can just be in a gray area.
Fashion is kinda a joke. I don't get too bogged down in the clothes. For me, it's one big art project, just a canvas to show that fashion should have a brand which has someone behind it who cares about different contexts. Social things.
I don't sleep as much as normal people do.
I've been DJing since I was in high school.
I don't have the patience to be a non-creator.
My lifestyle doesn't really account for movies. I can't even remember what I last saw.
I like to look at fashion and relate it to the time when it was happening.
I think my original ambition was to be an artist.
The amount of random conversations that lead to culture-shifting ideas is insane.
I've always had this in some ways pessimistic and in some ways realistic idea that I'm the lowest rung on the ladder.
Fashion and music are two great artistic forms that can be molded by the youth culture - our taste and our passion for evolving things in our limited time on earth allows us to look at things with fresh eyes.
I hate being up onstage with a microphone.
For me, just as a social recorder of 2016, there's a new girl that emerged that can shop in between Zara and designer and still maintain a sense of her personality and identity.
I'm a kid from Chicago. I know what it was like to see Obama become president. We felt the tectonic plates of the world shift.
What I love about tennis is the gracefulness. It's an aggressive and powerful game, but it takes touch and finesse.
Whenever I'm doing a collection, I'm inspired by the world around us.
Kanye's the best. He really, really is. He's cool. And why we've always gotten along is because we can just sit down and talk about art.
All I do all day is think of ideas and implement them. That's an industry, you know. I'm trying to make art on a commercial scale.
