La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode this morning announced its lineup for the AW22 edition of Paris Fashion Week, which is opened by Off-White, the streetwear label founded by Virgil Abloh. Since the designer’s shock passing last November, the industry has struggled to quantify the expansive loss of such a revolutionary creative. As individuals gathered on the feed to share their own encounters with Abloh, Louis Vuitton commemorated the former artistic director with two memorial shows in Miami and Paris, while Off-White took more of a poetic approach, transforming its stores into lush, botanical gardens.
The brand’s upcoming show will be the first since its founder passed away and while details of the collection remain sparse, it would be remiss not to consider the runway a formal goodbye – such is the provenance and prestige of being given the opening spot on the fashion week schedule. Elsewhere, 94 other designers will showcase their work between February 28 to March 8, including The Row, which will make its return to Paris. No doubt somewhere austere and desperately chic. The Olsen twins will be joined by Vaquera and Rui Zhou, one of the joint winners of the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize at last year’s edition of the LVMH Prize.
As ever, Paris promises to be the blockbuster pit stop of fashion month, playing host to Dior, Saint Laurent, Rick Owens, Loewe, Balenciaga, Valentino, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Miu Miu, among others. Beyond the catwalk, the Brooklyn Museum is staging the first posthumous show dedicated to the life and work of Abloh, with its doors opening this summer in June. While Off-White has yet to make a further statement on its AW22 outing, travel back through some of the designer’s most definitive creations at the label here.