The essential volume on the great fashion designer, entrepreneur and Louis Vuitton artistic director, back in print This authoritative Virgil Abloh compendium, created by the designer himself, accompanies his acclaimed landmark 2019-23 touring exhibition and offers in-depth analysis of his career and his inspirations. More than a catalog, Figures of Speechis a 500-page user's manual to Abloh's genre-bending work in art, fashion and design. The first section features essays and an interview that examine Abloh's oeuvre through the lenses of contemporary art history, architecture, streetwear, high fashion and race, to provide insight into a prolific and impactful career that cuts across mediums, connecting visual artists, musicians, graphic designers, fashion designers, major brands and architects. The book also contains a massive archive of images culled from Abloh's personal files on major projects, revealing behind-the-scenes snapshots, prototypes, inspirations and more--accompanied by intimate commentary from the artist. Finally, a gorgeous full-color plate section offers a detailed view of Abloh's work across disciplines. Virgil Abloh(1980-2021) was a fashion designer and entrepreneur, and the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's men's wear collection from 2018 to 2021. He was also CEO of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. Born in Rockford, Illinois, to Ghanaian parents, he entered the world of fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009 alongside rapper Kanye West. The two began an artistic collaboration that would launch Abloh's career with the founding of Off-White. Timemagazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018.

A collection of essential quotations from the renowned fashion designer, DJ, and stylist Abloh-isms is a collection of essential quotations from American fashion designer, DJ, and stylist Virgil Abloh, who was a major creative figure in the worlds of pop culture and art. Abloh began his career as Kanye West’s creative director before founding the luxury streetwear label Off-White and becoming artistic director for Louis Vuitton, making Abloh the first American of African descent to hold that title at a French fashion house. Defying categorization, Abloh’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums and galleries, most notably in a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Gathered from interviews and other sources, this selection of compelling and memorable quotations from the designer reveals his thoughts on a wide range of subjects, including creativity, passion, innovation, race, and what it means to be an artist of his generation. Lively and thought-provoking, these quotes reflect Abloh’s unique perspective as a trailblazer in his fields. Select quotations from the book: “I believe that coincidence is key, but coincidence is energies coming towards each other. You have to be moving to meet it.” “Life is collaboration. Where I think art can be sort of misguided is that it propagates this idea of itself as a solo love affair—one person, one idea, no one else involved.” “Black influence has created a new ecosystem, which can grow and support different types of life that we couldn’t before."

Packaged Set

“What's my DNA?” Virgil Abloh asks to an overflowing auditorium at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Abloh goes on to provide his audience with a “cheat code”—advice he wishes he had received as a student. He then unpacks a series of “shortcuts” for cultivating a “personal design language.” Trained as an architect and engineer, Abloh has translated the tools and techniques of his student days into the world of fashion, product design, and music. His label, Off-White, works in seeming contradictions, marrying streetwear with couture, collaborating with brands like Nike, Ikea, and the Red Cross; musicians like Lil Uzi Vert and Rihanna; and “mentors” like Rem Koolhaas. Impervious to hurdles (“They literally don't exist.”), Abloh takes us behind the scenes of his design process, sharing the essentials of editing, problem-solving, and storytelling. He paints a picture of his DNA, and then flips the question: What's your DNA? The Incidents is a series of publications based on events that occured at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design between 1936 and tomorrow. Edited by Jennifer Sigler and Leah Whitman-Salkin Copublished with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design

"This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Virgil Abloh: "Figures of Speech" organized by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago."

Bringing together all the greats--from Air Jordan 1 to Air Presto--Nike and Virgil Abloh reinvent sneaker culture with the collaborative project The Ten and redesign 10 sneaker icons. Experience engineering ingenuity and Abloh's investigative design process: each shoe is a piece of industrial design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once.

“Excellent… and written in a gripping style.” —The Economist During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of one Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, and inventor of the Treasury bill, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that—decades later—inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Persuasive and precocious, he was also the esteemed editor of the Economist. He offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, held sway in political circles, made as many high-profile friends as enemies, and won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, James Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.

At Nike, the desire to be the best is a journey, not a destination--better is always temporary. Phaidon commemorates the company's influence with Nike: Better is Temporary, a landmark publication that charts Nike's transformation from rebellious upstart to global phenomenon. This immersive visual survey offers an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes exploration into Nike's ethos-driven design formula, placing industry-defining innovations and globally recognized products alongside previously unpublished designs, prototypes, insider stories, and more. Beginning with "Breaking2," an introduction detailing Nike's 2017 attempt to facilitate a sub-two-hour marathon, the book lays out in five thematic chapters Nike's focus on performance, brand expression, collaboration, inclusive design, and sustainability. The book's extraordinary design also nods to its contents. The striking cover features overlapping silkscreened layers of Nike's proprietary Volt yellow and Hyperpunch pink colors overlaying an image of world-champion marathoner Eliud Kipchoge printed in a half-tone dot pattern. The book's spine, visible through the clear jacket, showcases a series of colored tabs that extend from its interior pages and which are referenced in the book's bonus chapter, "Crafting Color." Combining 500 color illustrations with stories, insights, knowledge, passion, and history shared by Nike's remarkable team, Nike: Better is Temporarywill serve as a manual of innovation and inspiration for generations to come.

The 2022 Kirkus Prize Winner for Nonfiction Fragrance has long been used to mark who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned— Focusing their gaze on our most primordial sense, writer and perfumer Tanaïs weaves a brilliant and expansive memoir, a reckoning that offers a critical, alternate history of South Asia from an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective. From stories of their childhood in the South, Midwest, and New York; to transcendent experiences with lovers, psychedelics, and fragrances; to trips home to their motherland, Tanaïs builds a universe of memories and scent: a sensorium. Alongside their personal history, and at the very heart of this work, is an interrogation of the ancient violence of caste, rape culture, patriarchy, war, and the inherited ancestral trauma of being from a lush land constantly denuded, a land still threatened and disappearing because of colonization, capitalism, and climate change. Structured like a perfume—moving from base to heart to head notes—IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir. In Sensorium is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.

The work of renowned contemporary artist Daniel Arsham blurs the lines between art, architecture, archeology, and design. In his distinctive style, he takes ancient art works and objects from twentieth-century pop culture and casts sculptures of them in geological materials such as quartz or volcanic ash, colliding past, present, and future in haunted yet playful visions that prompt viewers to question their everyday surroundings. Gathered from interviews and other sources, Arsham-isms is a collection of lively, thought-provoking, and memorable quotations from this exciting young creative talent on a wide range of subjects-including art, architecture, film, design, pop culture, the art world, and what it means to be a globally recognized artist today.