Fashion Heavyweight Virgil Abloh to Collaborate with IKEA

The Swedish retailer IKEA and Off-White’s Virgil Abloh announced a collaboration way back in June 2017, but until now they’ve not given away too many hints on their partnership.

Fear no more hypebeasts – recent images of Virgil with their new Frakta tote, peculiarly in beige instead of their signature blue, have finally been released. Pictures have also been circulating with rugs reading slogans like ‘BLUE’ and ‘KEEP OFF’, but they’re only things that the world has seen so far since IKEA’s announcement of a collaboration.

Abloh has been seen talking about three works in progress in Ikea Today’s broadcast, in which he says: “Growing up, I studied architecture and was into music, but I always felt that there was a gap between the things that I loved and consumed – who made them, how they made them – so that was a promise that I gave to my design process. It’s a powerful tool to get people into the design if they simply can see the process in our meetings.”

Abloh and the team are thinking of a new perspective on cabinets, chairs, doorsteps, and rugs by taking themselves out of the parameters of traditional design and usage. Abloh did a live stream on YouTube and unveiled many of their prototypes while talking during the video.

According to Abloh and the Swedish mega-brand, the things which we use daily have been created out of necessity and they usually have no designer. Now the collaborating parties want these simple household things to look more artistic and to have more meaning attached to them.

Abloh told that he is adding his own personal touch to things and linking two objects in a way that give the user a contemporary re-imagination of simple objects like doorsteps and wooden chairs. Virgil Abloh is one of the biggest names in fashion in 2018 – and we wouldn’t bet against this collaboration being a huge success.

[interaction id=”5b053fb9a222d4332ec6a934″]