Virgil Abloh Serves Up Key Career Advice for Young Creatives

Just before staging its Fall/Winter 2019 runway show, Off-White™ teamed with MR PORTER for the exclusive “Modern Office” collection. In light of the joint effort, designer Virgil Abloh sat down with the menswear site to dish out some career advice for fledgling creatives.

Abloh stresses the value of hard work — “As a creative, you’re always fighting against not having any ideas.” — but acknowledges that “there are shortcuts for everyone.” Work hard, but work smarter. Still, “a shortcut only happens by chance, you can’t bank on it. … I believe that coincidence is key, but coincidence is energies coming towards each other. You have to be moving to meet it.”

The Louis Vuitton menswear director also reiterates the value of following your passion; when “your passion becomes your occupation, then you never work a day in your life. I never think of things as one thing or the other. It’s like ‘do both.’” This underlines the value of authenticity, which Abloh considers a key component of a successful collaboration.

Shop the “Modern Office” release and read the entire interview on MR PORTER’s site.

Meanwhile, we recently went behind-the-scenes of Off-White™’s Fall/Winter 2019 runway show.