Is Streetwear on Its Way Out? Virgil Abloh Says 'Its Time Will Be Up'

Did the man currently considered the king of streetwear just predict its demise? Thatโ€™s the ironic question hanging in Off-White-style quotes after comments made by the trendsetting labelโ€™s founding designer, Virgil Abloh, now also the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton. In an interview with Dazed Digital published Tuesday, Abloh reflected on the last…

Did the man currently considered the king of streetwear just predict its demise? Thatโ€™s the ironic question hanging in Off-White-style quotes after comments made by the trendsetting labelโ€™s founding designer, Virgil Abloh, now also the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton. In an interview with Dazed Digital published Tuesday, Abloh reflected on the last decade, which has seen the architect son of Ghanaian immigrants from Rockford, Ill., rise to the heights of luxury fashion.

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Just this year, Ablohโ€”who just a decade ago was interning at Fendi alongside friend and collaborator Kanye Westโ€”garnered his own retrospective in Chicagoโ€™s Museum of Contemporary Art, an exhibition that included items from his first collection, Pyrex Vision, the high-end streetwear heโ€™s designed for his award-winning Off-White label and his multiple collaborations with Nike.

But as Abloh spoke with Dazed, he somewhat rejected the term โ€œstreetwearโ€โ€”despite being perhaps its most prominent ambassador. โ€œ[A]s a designer, you get confronted with the term of your generation which you have no control over,โ€ he said. โ€œFrom that frustration, I decided if โ€˜streetwearโ€™ was gonna be the sign of the times I was gonna define it rather than be defined by it...itโ€™s been enjoyable to define the space that I would perceivably be put in. My motivation this whole time has been to represent for a generationโ€”Iโ€™m still thinking about the kid that couldnโ€™t get into fashion shows,โ€ he added.

But though Abloh, a self-proclaimed โ€œoptimistโ€ has in large part defined the aesthetic for the second half of this decade, when asked about the future of streetwear in the 2020s, he predicted weโ€™ll be looking to the past:

I would definitely say itโ€™s gonna die, you know? Like, its time will be up. In my mind, how many more t-shirts can we own, how many more hoodies, how many sneakers? I think that like weโ€™re gonna hit this like, really awesome state of expressing your knowledge and personal style with vintageโ€”there are so many clothes that are cool that are in vintage shops and itโ€™s just about wearing them. I think that fashion is gonna go away from buying a box-fresh something; itโ€™ll be like, hey Iโ€™m gonna go into my archive.

Granted, our โ€œarchivesโ€ look nothing like Ablohโ€™s, but should he be correct, itโ€™ll be interesting to see how not only fashion but streetwear-focused entities like Highsnobiety, Hypebeast and Dazed itself also evolve. Of course, the unspoken appeal of most streetwear isnโ€™t just style, but comfortโ€”so, only time will tell.

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