Make It Ours

In 2018, the fashion world was shocked when Virgil Abloh was appointed as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton. In the brand''s 164 year history, he would be the first black designer to serve as Artistic Director. In this brilliant, landmark book about Virgil Abloh, Make It Ours , Robin Givhan charts his surprising path to the top of the fashion world - a story that encompasses so much more than his own journey. This is at once a remarkable biography of the singular, creative force of an icon and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh''s family, friends, collaborators, contemporaries, and many of the key figures of fashion''s present and recent past, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man''s rise amidst a cultural moment that would upend a century''s worth of ideas about luxury and taste. Featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from early groundbreaking Black designers like Oswald Boateng to Abloh''s mercurial but critical collaborator and mentor, Kanye West, Make It Ours moves seamlessly between high fashion and pop culture in telling the story of how the collision of these worlds irrevocably transformed our desires and beliefs about the essential connections between who we are and what we wear.

Autorentext

Robin Givhan is Washington Post's senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race, and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is the Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles. In addition to the Post, Givhan has worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press. During her most recent tenure at The Post, in addition to fashion, Givhan covered Michelle Obama during the first year of the administration.

Klappentext

BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025: Washington Post, New Yorker, Elle

'Captivating, emotional and illuminating' Tom Ford

'Thoughtful, intelligent, honest and masterfully crafted' Marc Jacobs

'A thrilling journey into the mind of a genius.' Edward Enninful

'A must-read' Elaine Welteroth, bestselling author of More Than Enough

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From Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Robin Givhan comes a groundbreaking chronicle of the legacy of Virgil Abloh, whose iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry transformed our ideas about the connection between who we are and what we wear

In 2018, shockwaves were sent around the fashion industry when Virgil Abloh was appointed the head of menswear for Louis Vuitton. Despite no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring, Abloh had become the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's 164-year history.

Make It Ours tells the story of how that moment came to be and how Abloh came to symbolise and embody the industry's way forward. Using Abloh's surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gate, and how a simple t-shirt came to hold as much cultural power as a haute couture gown.

With unparalleled access to Abloh's family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from groundbreaking Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh's mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man's rise amidst a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste. This is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury.