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Virgil Abloh has quite the resume, he runs his own label Off-White, recently became the menswear creative director of a little French brand you may have heard of… Louis Vuitton. Not to mention the DJ gigs, the IKEA home collaboration and now he designs champagne bottles and cases. Last week, Abloh, a bonafide purveyor of cool, celebrated his newest design project amongst some of his closest friends in New York. We chatted with the very busy man about where he finds his inspiration, and how he unplugs from it all.
Harper’s BAZAAR: You’ve got a lot on your plate right now, why add this new project with Moet?
Virgil Abloh: I don’t really have a cut-off switch when it comes to design. I’m interested in making versions, or making products I feel can make a compelling statement. When Moët reached out, I immediately had some ideas that I wanted to apply to the products.
HB: What keep you excited about design?
VA: I’m mostly inspired by how people use something, or the reverence of a product— so I’m constantly inspired. For this project, I was inspired by the idea of what champagne means. How it can be symbolic of an achievement, a celebration, it has a sort of upper-echelon emotion attached to it. So the design I applied to it, as a figure of speech in a way, in my voice, using Helvetica and quotes, to say… treasure the moment, “do not drop,” it’s fragile. That was a way to, in contemporary speak, merge these two ideas together.
HB: Where’s the most glamorous place you’ve ever had champagne?
VA: Here at the Mercer Hotel lobby
HB: Where do you go for a decadent night out?
VA: Probably the Mercer Hotel. It’s always a hotel…. the Sunset Tower in Los Angeles, and Le Meurice in Paris.
HB: What do you do when you need to unplug?
VA: Sleep [laughs]
HB: You just launched a radio station? What kind of music will be played?
VA: I’m already one episode down, working on the next. It’s a mix of every genre that interests me… jazz, hip-hop, electronic, dance, techno/house. Anything that’s good. I always listen to music as a backdrop, I hate silence.
HB: You travel a lot, how do you spend your time on those long flights?
VA: It’s a little bit of work and sleep. I don’t like sitting still, so the best way to pass time is watching films.
HB: Best films you’ve seen recently?
VA: I saw Beautiful Boy in Los Angeles and Mid ’90s.
From: Harper’s BAZAAR US
