Virgil Abloh Books: The Definitive Guide
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Virgil Abloh was undoubtedly one of the most prolific designers and creatives of this generation.
With accomplishments the likes of earning the position of artistic director at Louis Vuitton, his collaborations with Nike and Ikea, and his ultra-successful Off-White fashion brand, Abloh built a legacy that will stand the test of time despite his untimely death.
His passing was tragic, yet we hope that his philosophy, his body of work, and most importantly his creativity will be preserved in the following Virgil Abloh books, providing an opportunity for future aspiring designers to discover the remarkable human being that he was.
Rest in power, Virgil.
Virgil Abloh Books: The Full Bibliography
Table of Contents
Abloh-isms
by Virgil Abloh, Larry Warsh
Princeton University Press
(2021)
Insert Complicated Title Here by Virgil Abloh (2018)
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Insert Complicated Title Here is not quite a Virgil Abloh book per se, but a transcript in book form of a 2017 lecture the designer gave at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (watch the talk in its entirety below).
Offering an enlightening primer into Abloh’s design ethos and actionable advice for designers of all kinds, Insert Complicated Title Here makes for a nice little piece of Virgil Abloh memorabilia.
The book series by Sternberg Press also features lectures by Sterling Ruby and Raf Simons, Pierre Hermé, David Harvey, and Jenny Odell among others.
Watch Virgil Abloh’s “Insert Complicated Title Here” Lecture
Publisher — Sternberg Press
Publication Date — April 13, 2018
Format — Paperback
Print Length — 96 pages
ISBN-10 — 3956793811
ISBN-13 — 978-3956793813
Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech by Michael Darling, Virgil Abloh, et al. (2019)
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The definitive Virgil Abloh monograph remains the Figures of Speech book, initially published in 2019 by DelMonico on the occasion of the designer’s first solo art exhibit at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Figures of Speech features three main sections: a catalog providing an overview of Abloh’s interdisciplinary practice by MCA Chicago Chief Curator Michael Darling with essays and interviews by Taiye Selasi, Lou Stoppard, Michael Rock, Samir Bantal, Rem Koolhaas, and Anja Aronowsky Cronberg; an archives with more than 1,800 never-before-seen images from the artist’s personal files; and an index cross-referencing Abloh’s works with his projects and process, highlighting the designer’s vocabulary of themes.
Spanning Abloh’s entire body of work, from fashion and design by way of art, and from Off-White and Nike to Louis Vuitton, Figures of Speech is a must-have book for all Abloh devotees.
A Special Edition of the book was also released in 2019 with the words “PERSONAL COPY” silk-screened on the side of the book, a cloth slipcase with a measuring tape bookmarker, a flexi disc printed with a Juergen Teller photo, and a spoken word recording by Abloh and Playboi Carti, coinciding with the opening of the exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta.
More recently, Figures of Speech was reprinted for the exhibit’s posthumous move to the Brooklyn Museum in 2022.
First Edition
Publisher — DelMonico Books / Prestel
Publication Date — May 28, 2019
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 496 pages
Dimensions — 9.31 x 1.88 x 12.25 inches
Dimensions — 23.65 x 4.78 x 31.12 cm
ISBN-10 — 379135857X
ISBN-13 — 978-3791358574
Special Edition
Publisher — DelMonico Books / Prestel
Publication Date — October 16, 2019
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 496 pages
Dimensions — 9.63 x 2.25 x 12.69 inches
Dimensions — 24.46 x 5.72 x 32.23 cm
ISBN-10 — 3791359002
ISBN-13 — 978-3791359007
2022 Reprint for the Brooklyn Museum exhibit
Publisher — DelMonico Books / Prestel
Publication Date — August 9, 2022
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 496 pages
Dimensions — 9.25 x 1.75 x 12 inches
Dimensions — 23.5 x 4.45 x 30.48 cm
ISBN-10 — 1636810748
ISBN-13 — 978-1636810744
A Team With No Sport: Virgil Abloh Pyrex Vision Flip Book by Virgil Abloh (2019)
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Virgil Abloh’s foray into fashion began in 2012 with the launch of his first clothing brand Pyrex Vision, which garnered attention following the release of its now famed “Youth Always Wins” video, the lookbook for the Spring/Summer 2013 collection (watch it below).
A flip book showcasing stills from the campaign was published in 2019 by DelMonico under the title A Team With No Sport: Virgil Abloh Pyrex Vision Flip Book coinciding with Abloh’s run of museum exhibits that year.
Presently out of print, the flip book is a sought-after collectible which can at times be found on secondary markets (usually at a significant markup.)
Watch the “Pyrex Vision – Youth Always Wins Lookbook 2013” Video
Publisher — Delmonico Books / Prestel
Publication Date — June 17, 2019
Format — Paperback
Print Length — 124 pages
Dimensions — 6.75 x 0.62 x 7.38 inches
Dimensions — 17.15 x 1.57 x 18.75 cm
ISBN-10 — 3791358995
ISBN-13 — 978-3791358994
Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS by Virgil Abloh (2020)
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One of Virgil Abloh’s main claims to fame was the 2017 Nike collaboration project “The Ten”, which gave the designer carte blanche to revisit ten of the sportswear brand’s most revered sneakers.
From the Air Force 1 Lows and Air Max 90s to the Jordan 1s and Prestos, Abloh left no stone unturned, splitting his designs between two main themes: “REVEALING”, focused on hand-cut, open-source and reconstructed silhouettes, and “GHOSTING”, featuring translucent uppers to further the idea of revealing.
For all those who can no longer afford a pair, now reselling for thousands of dollars, publisher TASCHEN immortalized the project inVirgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS.
Offering insights into Abloh’s creative process, the book provides an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look into the designer’s engineering ingenuity, documenting everything from the investigative phase and text messages between Abloh and Nike designers to lost treasures from the Nike archives and various prototypes.
The first part of the book presents a visual history of Nike sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the project grew.
Texts by Nike’s Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design history while a foreword by Harajuku streetwear legend Hiroshi Fujiwara places the “The Ten” within the historical continuum of Nike collaborations.
This one’s a must-have for all the sneakerheads out there.
Publisher — TASCHEN
Publication Date — December 27, 2020
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 352 pages
Dimensions — 10.35 x 1.38 x 12.17 inches
Dimensions — 26.3 x 3.5 x 30.9 cm
ISBN-10 — 383658509X
ISBN-13 — 978-3836585095
Abloh-isms by Virgil Abloh and Larry Warsh (2021)
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Princeton University Press‘s -isms series, curated by renowned New York publisher and art collector Larry Warsh, distills the philosophy of some of this generation’s most prolific visual artists and designers into captivating and elegant little books.
Featuring quotes such as “I believe that coincidence is key, but coincidence is energies coming towards each other. You have to be moving to meet it,” the Virgil Abloh edition, Abloh-isms, enlightens us on some of the designer’s ideology on topics like creativity, passion, innovation, race, and what it means to be an artist in this day and age.
Also featured in the -isms‘ book series are Andy Warhol, Pharrell Williams, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei, Futura, and Daniel Arsham.
Publisher — Princeton University Press
Publication Date — March 16, 2021
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 160 pages
Dimensions — 4.5 x 0.75 x 5.5 inches
Dimensions — 11.43 x 13.97 x 1.91 cm
ISBN-10 — 0691213798
ISBN-13 — 978-0691213798
Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh by Anders Christian Madsen (2022)
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Virgil Abloh’s greatest accomplishment was arguably his position as artistic director for Louis Vuitton‘s prestigious menswear collection, a role he held from 2018 until his passing.
This posthumous monograph, published by Assouline and curated by fashion critic and British Vogue editor Anders Christian Madsen honors Abloh’s body of work for the iconic French luxury brand.
Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh, released in two alternate covers as well as in a $1,200 Ultimate Edition, features eight chapters (one for each of the designer’s LV collections), over 250 photographs, in addition to personal anecdotes from some of his most esteemed collaborators such as Nigo, Naomi Campbell, Luka Sabbat, Kendall Jenner, and Kid Cudi.
A testament to Abloh’s limitless creativity on and off the runway, Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh is a true celebration of the life and legacy of one of this generation’s most prolific and influential creators.
Cartoon Cover and Classic Balloon Cover
Publisher — Assouline
Publication Date — September 15, 2022
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 359 pages
Dimensions — 10 x 13 x 1.7 inches
Dimensions — 24.2 x 33 x 4.3 cm
ISBN-10 — 1649801524 (Cartoon Cover)
ISBN-13 — 978-1649801524 (Cartoon Cover)
ISBN-10 — 1649801838 (Classic Balloon Cover)
ISBN-13 — 978-1649801838 (Classic Balloon Cover)
Ultimate Edition
Publisher — Assouline
Publication Date — September 15, 2022
Format — Hardcover
Print Length — 360 pages
Dimensions — 16 x 17 x 3 inches
Dimensions — 39.6 x 47.4 x 7.8 cm
ISBN-10 — 1649801517
ISBN-13 — 978-1649801517
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