Hi, everyone. Thank you for coming. It's awesome to have such a giant crowd here. It's pretty sweet. So it's my pleasure to introduce Virgil Abloh today at the Graduate School of Design. I met Virgil many years ago. We were working side-by-side on a pavilion for an immersive film experience in Cannes. And it was a very challenging project, on the one hand, due to the schedule, on the other hand, due to its technical complexity. And so a couple of nights right before the actual opening, one of the many and pretty important stakeholders was losing his patience. And he sent a rather aggravated email to Virgil. It was saying something along the lines of, what is happening here, it's crazy we're trying to pull off a multimillion dollar super complex project, it's the 11th hour, dramatic changes are being done, changes are also being made, the soundtrack isn't ready, neither the video, we're changing the architecture, this is all insane. And I remember Virgil's response being, I know, teamwork is dream work! But that attitude-- that combination of clarity of vision on the one hand and audacity on the other hand-- lies at the core of his nature and is certainly the kind of infrastructure that is both constantly identifiable in his work. And it's also what enables him to conquer the creative worlds at such an intense speed. Virgil is never not Virgil and that constant is what allows him to seamlessly navigate the abrupt terrain between different territories-- beat fashion, music, sonography, art, architecture, industrial design, or graphic design performance. You will never see him lose his cool-- not before the first fashion show for his brand, Off-White in Paris, not in the midst of overseeing the design for an entire world tour for one of the world's biggest musicians, not in front of crowded lines of the clubs where he DJs as Flat White, not in front of full auditoriums across the globe. Since that night in Cannes, Virgil came quite a long way. He was nominated in 2015 as one of the top eight finalists for the LVMH prize in Paris. He was inducted in the BoF 500 The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry list. He was also a top nominee in the category of International Urban Luxury Brand at the British Fashion Awards and also a nominee for Emerging Talent at the CFDA Awards. And in 2019, Virgil will be showcasing an artwork focused retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois. But Virgil initially started his career off by studying structural engineering. Yet his biggest revelation in school was that there was an Architecture Department. In his own words, he didn't know up until that point, that architecture was a thing-- something you could legitimately study or make a living with. He then proceeded to get a degree in architecture from IIT. And it seems that ever since, no stone was left unturned. His work covers an immense spectrum of collaborations with people like Jenny Holzer, or corporations like Nike or Ikea, musicians like Travis Scott, just to name a few. And I'm pretty sure I left quite a few out there. One could argue the drive behind Virgil's philosophy comes from that very first experience. At the heart of it lies an endless generosity, openness, and transparency. He will not view himself with the mystique of success, but on the contrary, he's in a constant dialogue with the audience around him. He's opening up his process-- always deconstructing his creative methodologies in a public arena, hoping that through that, someone is being exposed to thoughts and ideas they haven't encountered or dare to consider before. Our first direct project for Off-White was the first store ever, in Hong Kong. And it started with a stroll through the Chelsea galleries. We were looking at art and talking about the vision for how a space could represent everything that Virgil stands for-- the ultimate freedom to be different things all at once and none at the same time. The next time we saw each other again was actually at the very opening of that store. The entire process and communication-- every single design decision over the span of over six months-- was done on text message. While it might sound terrifying to some, it was one of the smoothest process I have encountered. And it speaks volumes about Virgil's ease to collaborate, as well as his skill to express ideas, because it requires a huge control of language to be able to communicate with precision in such a limited medium. We did, in fact, make a book from the process since it had been so insightful too. Virgil may not be practicing architecture in the traditional sense, but he is an architect at a different scale-- one that goes beyond the physicality of space. Around that, transcends any boundaries centered around a core of pure creative freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to welcome at the Graduate School of Design Virgil Abloh. [applause] I'm going to turn off my WhatsApp before it starts annoying you, or you can get a sense of how many messages comes through on the wave. All right. That introduction was serious. Thanks, Oana. Thanks to Harvard for allowing me to come and share random things on my laptop. But that's what this is about to be. First and foremost, I identify with you guys. I still feel like I'm a perpetual kid at school. And that's the first thing that I wanted to deliver because when I was a student all that I wish I knew now, is that one person would have told me one ounce of advice that wasn't necessarily, the rest of your career will be like an uphill battle. But more likely, that there's all these sort of short cuts that you can take. And so that's what, literally, this whole presentation's about. It's about shortcuts that I've learned through studying something super practical like engineering and architecture. But then in the outside world, there's all these sorts of caveats that you can use to find your career choice that's not delineated by a single major or single coursework that you're in. And in typical fashion, I'm super interested in doing what was inspiring to me the most when I was in school-- was watching famous architects present projects that were buildings built in far off lands. That looked pretty cool in photographs, but instead, of course as Oana mentioned, my work is by nature, cross-disciplinary. And it sort of lives outside the walls of architecture, but it's the exact same line of thinking that I learned in school. So that's sort of the premise. And I'm just going to flip through and just showcase different things that Instagram basically doesn't have the capability to show. So basically, every project that I'm working on that I would never Instagram, I'm just going to start sharing now, like Ikea, Nike stuff. Get in trouble, probably, by some corporation in two seconds, but let's do it. [applause] Sweet. So, as I sort of outlined, you guys understand, but let's call it design work. In an architectural press arena, we solve problems in a very structured way. That's what we're here to do. That's what this training is about. And basically, what I want to put forth is that, that logic works in an analogous way and basically, every other aspect of culture. We focus on living. We focus on design-- providing good design as a humanitarian effort but essentially, understanding that this way of thinking can apply to everything. So this is the first time I'm debuting a new wave. It's got these red slides. These red slides are cheat codes. Basically, if you can answer them, you basically give yourself a cheat code. And that's the sort of 2.0 these talks that I'm using. And it's things that I've had to learn. I basically work at a feverish pace in a self-serving way, just to find my signature. What's my DNA? Every architect, designer, artist that I look up to-- whether they were doing period paintings or buildings in their early career to the end of their career-- there's basically a through line. So what I would challenge you in your work, no matter what, is go. Go back to your earliest memories or the way that you thought to organize something-- the way you thought to organize your closet, or what colors were your favorite? Back in that early rationale, before you learned too much. That's when your DNA started. And for me, that leads me to my next slide, which I'm super proud of, because it's the first time I've ever thought about what I'm doing. I made myself make a list. This is straight from the iPhone Notes into my standard template. But I'll just run through it really fast. And then the products that I show afterwards, see if you can tell. See these signifiers. But this is by challenging myself to do a million projects at a time. I'm super obsessed with Duchamp super obsessed with readymade-- this idea that an artist over thought the game, understood the parameters, provided something provocative, provided something that became a launch pad for other forms of art. And as you'll see in a slide later, it's important to recognize where we're at in the lineage of art movements, especially now. I'm sure even in your class, you're trying to challenge yourself to invent something new, try to be so avant garde that has zero place. Basically that's impossible. These are things that I've figured out through working-- is that we exist off the backs of many other things and iterations before us. So once you think about us as a collective, you then realize that we're all tracking towards the same direction. And that's where I think humanity underlies this word-- down here, and I'm sure it says design somewhere. So number two for me, is obviously this thing that's probably getting a little bit tired, but get used to it because I'm going to keep using it. It's talking in quotes. It's basically humor. A couple of people laughed, and that's literally the point of that tool-- is to sort of insert humanity through conversations. You open up when you laugh. And obviously in our era where vintage is more cool than a popular trendy item, it's just us being ironic. Normcore K-Hole, that whole rationale. It's real. That's us. American Apparel, that whole thing, is just the halo that we're in. So my way of doing that and trying to be the most Duchamp version of ironic is speaking in quotes because it allows me to say two things at the same time, or be figurative and sort of precise. And I can basically design with a keyboard. I don't need Photoshop or anything else. So there's that. Then I have my 3% approach. Right now I'm only interested in editing something 3% from its original form. I'm basically tired. I might be too old. But I found that things are intriguing to me when they're slightly edited, like these shoes. It's like skipping ahead really far into the presentation, but there's more Nike's in this box that I'm going to throw around. But this is a Air Force One. Yeah, the Jordan way. But essentially, I got asked to do another Air Force One. This is like a new, new one. But I was only interested in restraining myself and only editing it 3% because I don't want another shoe. I want to see something that makes me recognize the shoe that I already have, but it's a personal thing. Moving down, basically, Off-White-- it's basically a shorthand pseudonym to remind me that I'm always just comparing two things, whether they're super dissimilar or they're actually the same. It's just my shorthand to say, between luxury and street wear, that's how I can decide if a dress is done or not, or if this t-shirt graphic is finished. It's an internal measuring stick. And then number five is, I love work in progress. It's another humanity thing. Once I realized that it's OK to not be a perfectionist, all of a sudden, I can do a million things at once and go to sleep at night. And I think it's important. I look at other friends work, who are super precise and perfectionist. And I realized I'm just trying to be a perfectionist, that I'm not even thinking anymore. The sort of design process is just going on to find some sort of space that, ultimately, actually looks like something else I've seen. And I think it's important to remember that your hand in your brain will tell you when something's finished. And then post-rationalize. Make up something afterwards, or whatever. Number six, which is important to me, this goes back to, do we need another shoe? Do we need another, whatever? An output, for me, has to have a reason to exist. I think that's why we have trash bins and recycling bins. It's in our brain that over consuming is obviously not OK. But I think to us, in this sort of design community, we're the thinkers. We're the ones who are going to challenge all these generational decisions. But first, every output-- does it need to exist? It's OK to say no in that context. Number seven is one of the things that is a driving principle to me. It's like the tourist and the purist meet somewhere. And that's basically what I love about coming to college towns. It's because I remember being here. Think about how much knowledge is in here, then think about how much knowledge is in Boston. There is a metric. It lives in these blocks, but there's real people in the world that benefit. And if we're not at the end interchanging with that, then ultimately, it's self-serving, as fun as design is. So that's super important in my work. Ikea. So surreal. Basically when they hit me up the first time, I swore they wanted me to DJ an event. I was like-- I used to-- I admire-- My team try to find the e-mails. I want to do an Ikea project. Because this was before the Hypebeast was posting Ikea hats and all that. I was like, can you imagine? Not even in an ironic way. It's like I'm you guys. So I was the architecture kid that was making chairs, because class was so boring that I needed to like do something else. And I was like, oh, what if I could bring this sort of mentality that I was doing towards t-shirts to Ikea? And so this is my squad. All kids that I hired off Instagram that just came up to me and were like, hey, I know how to use 3-D, whatever. I was like, cool you're down. This is us last week, so this is not even old footage. That's funny. This is Ikea Hotels, a crazy place. So I'm just going to go fast because I got too many slides. But basically, the first project was designing a living environment for a millennial, which is super cool. Ikea serves two billion people. I'm still stuck on that metric. It's what to Oana I was saying, is architecture-- I used to think was just building buildings. But me navigating my way into this institution, basically, that provides furniture to real people. These are tourists. And to me, if I can bring an ounce of a new idea or an ounce of an idea that I had when I was a student, that's already a win because it feels a little bit different. So as you can tell, that rug was racking my brain. Of course it like looks super simple, but for me, it's pulling those vocab words out of my own language and applying it. I love the idea of thinking about the living room that you're not supposed to stand or use like certain furniture. It looks expensive. So, that's that. Off-White balance. In a moment here, that's a secret rug that you can't see at the bottom. Move pass that. I challenge myself too. It's like, who actually has the luxury to have a rug that big? But it's amazing. Ikea represents democratic design, which is a whole philosophy, which actually betters the earth and betters our consumption. And they make the best products that they can make. And to me, what's key is that they're affordable. Obviously Off-White is it's own thing. It's by design an owned project, but it's important to me that things are attainable. That's why this lecture's free. But it's about the ideas. It's about the ethos, and that's why I'm excited to always share that. But this, I don't know how much it's going to cost, but definitely probably under $50, maybe. And it's a lot of ideas in there. [applause] Definitely going to get an email about quoting a price that I don't know. But it's Ikea, you know? But what's cool to me is that it's a piece of art. One thing about me is that in 50 years, my goal is that-- it is kind of apparent that I basically just use other factories as my suppliers to make art. But I use the best and the ones that have an ethos, not the ones that are sort of behind the scenes. So I'm super proud of, because it's an idea that's been realized and is coming out, I think, soon. And then again, a millennial's apartment, basically, is like 30 pieces that I have to design, which is scary. It's probably the longest design project that I've ever taken on myself. And a large part of that is because it's so permanent. It's like a t-shirt. It's only going to get like five wears or something like that. And then you're on to the next. That's fashion, and that's the whole premise-- that it moves along faster. And there's a romanticism about that which I love and which is my main occupation. But once you step outside of that square footage of your closet, think about how much you spend per square inch in your space. Your closet is like astronomical between the shoes, the hood-- how many hoodies can you fit? How many of that idea, but then what about the rest of your place? And when do you actually make the conscious decision to buy a coffee table? Do you buy it out of necessity, or do you actually have an affinity for it? So me working with Ikea was a super dream project because I could put the attention that I was putting in people's closet into objects that you live with, arguably, in periods of 10 years. How often would you own a bed in your lifetime? So that's what I'm challenging myself to make. And I'm trying to be like, is that something new that I made up that sounds really dumb? But what if street wear was like a architecture movement-- like a movement with an art? And that thing keeps on popping up because I feel like, obviously, we're in this like postmodernism sort of state. But to me, what street wear, in quotes, means-- it's just using whatever means to make something that is impactful, to make something super niche, and that you're emotionally tied to. So as this Ikea project kept developing, there's one secret element that I can't tell you. I came up with this really good idea, but my lawyer freaked out. So I can't even show it, let alone talk about it. But through that, no, which is important. Every time you hear the first "no," that's a good sign because that first "no" will always drive a really good second idea. And then keep that one for yourself. So what I did is, I came up with this sort of figurative way of thinking about objects. I was like, what's the best invention in mankind, or whatever? And then just not even really googling, just using your own head-- it's like you're in Wikipedia-- I was like, of course, the wheel, right? Or a fire? Skip that. The wheel. And then everyone's got all these random Tumblr images on their laptop, or just googling. And I was like, of course, the wheel is an awesome invention, but whoever invented the doorstop was genius. I like this idea that-- I'm looking at this image that these two wheel chocks could stop a plane from taking off-- that could go around the world but except for these annoying yellow blocks-- can stop a Boeing 747 from going from here to Tokyo. And that's, heck, post-rationalizing. I think that's indicative of my first idea that I really loved-- even I can't make in that sort of realm. So inspired by this image is going to be-- basically, the Ikea Project is rooted in here. And it's that interruption. So these are early sketches. These are sketches only like a week old. This is after going to Ikea-- trying to problem solve, but I'm trying to think of an aesthetic. And it's pretty similar in all my work. When I started, I always think about one detail. And I think about repetition to own it because that's one idea. It's not about coming up with 60 ideas for one execution. So it's funny. Ikea itself hasn't seen these. The idea, to me, is something I learned too. You have to learn by making. So when I was there, they showed me some of the oldest techniques, or how a broom handle goes into a broom head, and how it's like threaded. And that's sort of closure. So basically, I want to take that very old classic wood closure, and then this doorstop screws onto the bottom and makes the whole thing level. So it doesn't actually use the doorstop as its physics mechanism. And that, to me, is streetwear. But deeper into it. And then, this chair is supposed to be the most generic chair of real life. It's basically, if you're a kindergartner, what do you think a chair is? Because as we go back, I'm like, do we need another chair? Why are we designing chairs? So for me, you can kind of get a window into how I'm thinking of things, like the bed. Will have this iconic sort of feature. Again, super affordable. The mirror is going to be broken, basically. Because the ethos, for me, is like embed art. Art is sort of free. It's something recognizable. It's not anonymous. And it makes it intriguing and something worth coveting. I was super inspired by a trip that I took this summer to a friend's home, who's had museum quality art. Open the doors and Jeff Koon's crazy thing that you would see in an investment bank lobby-- Cool sterling ruby. And I was like, I want to make something at Ikea that's equally as coveted by a multimillion dollar home as it is by a college student. And to me, it's like embedding art into something that is universal. So it was going to be a broken mirror. The number one thing, I've been doing these surveys too, where I go and visit kids' homes and ask him 20 questions, take photos of their place. And basically, the number one constraint with a home is storage. Skip everything else. You don't really need another rug, a chair, whatever. The stuff that you already have is-- you don't know what to do with it. And my idea's making visible storage, so at least you can recognize what you own. That's why you have it. A bag. Of course I'm doing the bag. But this is sort of the equation-- solving very practical things with adding some value. Imagine that regular chair and then this weird chair with the red doorstop. To me, that's cool to look at. It Becomes something on top of it's function. There's a little Ikea vibe. Going on this slide here, another one. This is like the photo that-- not really, its not that important. But it's impactful to me because the whole Instagram, everyone's creative-- Peter Savile, my mentor, the guy that did all those like Joy Division album covers, told me-- he's like a super mentor of mine and was like, you know why your generation has this feeling of angst and why you're sort of super Normcore. A little bit over it but you're excited to be in it. He was like, in my time-- which he predates me by like 20, 30 years-- when we were in London-- he, in his communication graphic design, meets a band called Joy Division. They didn't even have anyone to do an album cover. And they're just like, hey, we know how to use these things at school. And it was basically just that waveform, which was just a reference that he had, and just gave it to him. Photocopied it. It was like, here. And it's a super important album packaging of their time, in our time. He was basically like, back then, there was three of us on the same street. It was like no one was interested in that. And look at all of us. We can fill a room. We're on the same path. So that's where that feeling of oversaturation is, but it shouldn't be discouraging. We have a bigger community, is the way that I see it. But just having a knowledge of what these different periods in art are, can help you give understanding to what you're doing and why you arrive at these ideas-- like the whole world involved in this sort of way. That gave me a bit of context. So I was not like fighting to be so different. It's just owning my own voice and it's like a sea of differences. Everyone's trying to make a mark. So the renaissance. That's how I kicked off this wave. I always bring this up in talks because you can never predict what first project is going to lead to your dream job or career goals. And this was my domino effect. I was just really into Caravaggio to the point where me, as a creative person, didn't realize you could invent. And that's what this painting represents to me. Honestly, I just put this up here to have it up at Harvard. Just try to make this long winded vibe, but this is like my domino effect. I hadn't ever overthought it. Do you know what I mean? I just made this video, screen printed some shirts, and gave them to friends. And then that's literally why I'm standing here-- a random sweatshirt and a photo from a book that I liked. And basically it's a two line poem on the back that sort of reads like a Jersey. And it's super seminal for me. And I think it's important if you amongst all your studies-- amongst your nine to five-- all these kids tuning in on Livestream or whatever, if you just force yourself to do the one project that you believe in, and then it exists, that's going to be the one that's going to lead you on your career-- not necessarily the practical ones. So that's just a showcase of what I believe that everyone should do. And then, so going back to that, you also have to have mentors-- dead or alive. You have to connect with somebody of work or someone who formulated a thought and an aesthetic, and then build yours upon them. What most people won't tell you is that the people that you look up to didn't invent themselves. Everyone has this sort of-- I call it, getting your brain reprogrammed. Once you learn a thought process, you can actually see yourself in that and add to it. So for that, it's Corbusier, for sure. And this kind of dials into that Ikea project, when we're trying to solve this issue of dwelling, and how do we live in spaces versus how the generation of thinkers before us thought. Corbusier obviously thought a house was a machine-- a machine to live in. So in that context, the living room is only for living. The kitchen's only for eating. The dress in your bedroom-- it's improper to change in your living room. That's not proper human behavior. And so obviously, I have a mentor. I have a thought process and aesthetic that I love. But then once you learn the ethos of why you love the aesthetic, you dig deeper. And then how to turn the wheel left or right, so it's important. That's why I often reference things. I'm not ashamed at recognizing these great moments before us. But take anything and add it to the year 2017, it should be different. It should feel like we can collectively agree on it, and that's what I focus on in a number of projects. So moving on away, this is also two weeks ago in Milan. As the Prada Foundation was getting finished, I happened to be there meeting with Rem on a project that we're working on. And it was cool. He's discovering this new building the same time me and my friend are there, so it was like a midway break through our conversation. But I strictly love images like this, and I'll show them for forever just because the generation of thinkers and designers and us are on earth at the same time. I think it's critical that these loops get made all the time. Students and the people who basically wrote our textbooks-- and I'll keep striving to do this and just have conversations. So we spoke. And we're getting in-depth on obviously this idea-- what he's working, obviously, with the countryside, and that if half the world's population is living in cities, than what's happening in the countryside-- and how I'm articulating that, is what I see in our dynamic. I was just in Soho an hour and a half ago, it was like, there's so many stores are closed. It was like palace. And there's Mercer. The end of Mercer is like popping. But all these vacant rea-- literally, half of downtown New York is just empty. And we have Amazon. We're not even shopping as much. And me, I'm in fashion, so how I'm adapting to this whole idea of countrysides-- how is that going to change the hip relationship between cities and the countryside? Are kids now going to like live in Montauk, and then go into the cities on the weekend for entertainment? All you need a first floor retail for is basically eating. You don't need to shop. People aren't even shopping in that pace. So the only reason why I bring up this sort of divergent tangent, is because this inspires how you can design a t-shirt. It helps me think of-- again, do we need more chairs? So I would urge you guys always to think abstract and big. Countryside to city is this macro, but it's giving me perspective on how to tackle other projects. Another super important, for me, is Donald Judd in terms of form. Be a person I'm trying to find-- even though I know my aesthetic, but I'm interested in the overall form that things are taking. And just another. I'm just putting these things out there for people who don't know, to Google these names and read up on things besides Hypebeast essentially. But this is a great quote, and it synergizes with Henrick who's a design leader on my Ikea. He's a another mentor of mine, and he made a good point that struck me. He said, we're at an age where design is just assumed. He's like, you don't notice that a door handle doesn't work until it's broke. He's like, but you forgot that it had been designed. So we're in a world where we just expect design. And obviously, this room has a higher penchant for what design is, but it's everywhere. And how can we as a collective, make people-- tourist versus purist-- make the outside world understand that design is something to be cherished? That's, to me, closer to quality of life than anything else. So I think it's just important to be mindful of these things as you're doing your student projects, or you're working on your extracurricular-- what your real passion project is, is drawing these links. All these things are just here as like mood board for tools, for you guys to make your own list like I had at the beginning. And then also, this a point of crossing boundaries. Just because you're a furniture design, it doesn't mean you can't be an artist, or culinary chef, et cetera. And just studying his form-- the way he was using different materials and approaches to execute profound ideas and it was all rooted in his system. Bingo. OK. Nike shoes. Which is cool in my project that I've done so far. I haven't been able to nerd out, like the actual process for that shoe, or how these things came about. It started for me-- my own personal thing is, I'm not a sneaker-head. I just wear the same shoes for a really long time, and then I just go on to another. But I understand the passion for them. And obviously, I'm from Chicago, so Michael Jordan was our basketball player. So for me, the sort of resurgence of these '85 vintage is where it started from. And of course, being entrusted with Nike to re-approach 10 different icons, I took that as another major design project-- not like a, let's just color them up and put them back out into the market. I almost think about it like a student would-- like how I would make a model of it. And I challenged them to-- it was like an ethos that I had. I thought, Nike products. The only thing that I can add to the situation is that I felt that their products came out of a microwave, because they were so good. It's sort of naive, but they're so perfectly put together. So this is the first Illustrator that I did myself, where I was like, I want to get the feeling of this, but something brand new. And how does one go about that? And if you remember my seven principles about work in progress or illustrating, I took it with great responsibility that they asked me to approach their icons. And when you think of Nike, you quickly can say Air, which is what a large part of the whole ethos is based upon. And I did, like, the naive-question-thing. I grabbed one. And I was like, in this Air Jordan, is there an air pocket? Because it didn't say. I couldn't see it, and this predates their technology to open the window. So I just took an Xacto knife, and jammed it in the bottom, realizing that there was air, and I was like, I going to right air in my language so that it reinforces the ethos. And then obviously this in-process is how we ended up with a half-made shoe. As I want to mention, the iPhone is my tool. The only thing that I-- I can have a conversation with you and work at the same time. So of course I do that too much. But WhatsApp is my favorite program of choice. And this Air-- the placement is all happening on my phone. So early prototype here, before we were like getting the whole thing together. These are cool. Anyone from Converse here? A couple kids, yes. You guys can't really properly see these. Anyone know who Jim Joe is? He's the artist kid that did Drakes. He's way important. He did many more things just besides that. But here's a special edition he did. It's got a swoosh on it. This was the original design intention. It basically caused a huge headache when I tried to pull this one off. I love if you could make impossible product-- product that doesn't seem like it would make it through a legal department. That's an ongoing thing, but since it was-- what I thought the most important thing is it's Nike Inc. going across the brands that they own, which is huge. So it's Air Jordan. That's a different company. Nike, itself, and Chuck Taylor-- a company that they own. They're giving me 10 of them. So out of all 10, my dream was that you would do something that can only live within the 10 of those products. So if anyone wondered, that's why there's this woven label that's here. It was another one of my get-out-of-legal issues. I had them cut as if it was the same as this one. It's another Jim Joe Air Force 1-- one of one art piece. It's my friend, basically, who inspires me, so I have mentors that are dead. I have mentors that are 30 years older than me, but I have mentors that are like 10 years younger than me. And he's the friend of mine that gave me this nudge to just right on things, and don't be precious. And I think this embodies that too. He grabbed it, and then just gave this back to me. And I was like, this is from Dover Street. You just took it off the shelf and drew and then put it back. And I was like, this is why I make stuff. It's just spark an idea. I'll pass these around, so you guys can steal them, and I'll find you for sure. Kid with the Ogg hat. Yeah. But I think it's important not to be precious. That's what this whole thing is-- Nike and other dream projects, for me. And I was like, I have to hit this out of the park. And all the architecture kids can catch a vibe. A lot of this is like model-making. This is at the same time that I came up with that whole putting sculpture on a bag. That was just me finding new space. And that's when I was like, a shoe is a shoe to me. I'm not approaching it as a shoe, and I think maybe that's why I found a little bit of open space. I was just looking at it like an object. You can choose to wear it on your shoe, and that's where sneaker culture had gone. These just sit above kids' beds, or they sit somewhere. And I think they sit in boxes, still. And I wanted to feel like they were already used when you got them. They're still precious, but they seem like objects. This is where the Presto came from. Kid named Matt Kilgore is like a genius. Nate, Job, and Rico was like a squad of kids in a shop, just like you guys probably have here. This is where is why the sole turned out this color. Because this is just a 3D printed sole. And this is actually an Air Max 90 that's turned inside out-- that got jammed back into it. And I was like, stop! No one do anything else. It's done to Nike, who can make a spaceship, basically. So that shoe literally exists because we were just cutting around and making this. So I'm proud of that [? vibe. ?] Oh yeah. That's that little cut. It's supposed to be Nike, but that's as far as I could get them to do. This is a shoe. This is the very first shoe that I made there. Because I was like, I didn't come all this way from my first Nike meeting and not end up with anything to take home. I was like, where's the printer? Like, hey can you-- and that's what I do-- say, hey, can you do this? Can you glue this here? And so these are one of my favorite shoes. Just details. But the process-- I think if you guys can see this and get inspiration off of it. But I know Oana is a fan of model-making. Did you ever pull that trick off of? Of getting a studio that only does model-making? She's working on it. She's working on it. I'm going to take that class. Yeah, the versions of this shoe before it came. I don't know if I can show that. Yeah, that's the shoe I showed you before. The blazer did that on WhatsApp. The idea that the swoosh was just lower-- those mistakes in Photoshop when you put something over, and you're like, oh, that looks cool? Now on your feet. Yeah, this is this. The first version. It's just one bullet point. That's sort of the process of how I work. And the reason why it's a little bit all over the place-- I always thought if you worked linearly, then you have no room. You know, do opposites. It just feels better. But then that space in between gives you a new experience that you can apply and problem solve. That's why I think I work on so many things at one time. I couldn't just do one project day in, day out. I think it's actually not healthy. Women's Show. This platform is super cool because when I do a fashion show, it's probably the most amount of-- it's one of the products that I do. It takes four months of thinking, and people only see it for seven minutes. And no one ever has a conversation around it. It's usually, like, two interviews that I do, and then it's off. But my last Women Show in Paris was based around Princess Diana. And it was a tribute show, just because I felt that she predates our now. To me, she's one of the most photographed women on the planet, Earth. And it's sort of in our periphery. But she's like a muse for modern dressing. The fact that she could go literally from something so formal something so casual; had her own sense of style. There was no Instagram. There's no paparazzi. There's no outfits. There's no stylist to go do the daily errands. So I wanted to highlight that. It's like I have this brand Off-White only to tell stories. I don't have it to do traditional fashion because I don't know that. I started from that Prps-- a hoodie with a Caravaggio image. But I would think and I promote is, I was never going to be limited by hoodies and t-shirts no matter how much it made sense. You can imagine how much advice that I had gotten-- was like, hey, just do that. And it's like, nah, I want to draw a line between that and the opposite. And that's with a zigzag. So now, I'm free to articulate stories. And this too. Drop that in there for you guys. But look at this whole outfit at the image shot on film. The fact it's universal-- that's what I love, as you can tell. I love brands because it already gives you a starting point to tell another story or divert from that. So these are the type of images that I was looking at-- the Red Cross, even that. So a little known fact that I did is, I did these pieces and I collaborated with the Red Cross. And I tried to collaborate with Harvard-- didn't work. But donating back to charities that she was giving her time to, so that her message could live on. That's an architecture thing. That's like literally an architect getting a program, and deciding where and how big the room should be. Put me in fashion, and I'm like, wait. I want to continue this one person's story because it's super like-- the idea of using graphic t-shirts that-- Red Cross, Off-White. They exist now and the proceeds are going back. So that something like super fulfilling, to me, that doesn't necessarily fit in any sort of post anywhere. And then obviously, what she meant, she was like Princess Diana-- like a living Cinderella. So my show ended up looking like this. From that Prps hoodie champion that wasn't my brand, all the way articulating to this image-- which to me, is just a five year graduation of that same exact domino effect project. All the handbags-- this I did get legally cleared-- I took news tabloids, all those sorts of things, and was like, this is a version of their graphic t-shirt to me. But it's the handbag with the logo that is a purse. And the thought process was one of the most advanced personal concepts for fashion. To me, it's like, put this in 2017, if she was here with us. Or the idea of people who live with paparazzi images of themselves. What's the one thing that a paparazzi mag might not do? It's promote a competing organization-- which was the whole ethos behind these handbags. This is streetwear-- my sort of art movement that I'm trying to claim as something advanced. But the idea to me that they make you laugh, it's got that tinge of irony in it. It's got that feeling like it's juxtaposing something else. And it's not limiting me to this sort of streetwear 1.0, but that I can tell this narrative in a far off different space. So these are just images from the show. This is derived from a tiara. Obviously, no one's going to wear one in those in a modern context. So I was like, let's put it on the feet. Let's re-imagine what high heels are. I did these all with Jimmy Choo. Gotten a little bit of trouble for doing this. I can only use Jimmy Choo shoes in the show. And I had all these Nike shoes and I was like, can I just do two of them? Because this was based on when you're commuting and you're on the train. And obviously, women having to wear heels on the way to work, you hold the heels in your hand and then wear sneakers. But you know the ethos is obviously all right on anything. This is a show-- super proud of it because it puts the needle where I want the women's wear for the collection to live. While the menswear or any other ideas that I've had since I have started can still live, but that's the ethos of Off-White. Like Both are Off-White, not one or the other. Last show. You can't really see them, but those heels-- it was based on that glass slipper vibe. They all had plastic. Yeah, that's it. They become objects again. I show these images because you guys might be in your studios, thinking that it is bad. I still practice architecture, not at the same pace or point, but your ideas are analogies. So your thought process could apply to something else that you might not even be thinking of. But hopefully, you see something like this, and it's like, oh, it's OK to sort of veer off and to send a random email to heel company or a random one to an eyeglass-- Warby Parker or whatever. Before you know it, you'll be realizing ideas in different spaces, and that can inform what you're all about. Yeah, streetwear Again. One of the later epiphanies that I've been having is that, even in conversations, an analogy is something that works for us in a design sense. You can use the same tools in different mediums and arrive at different results. So keep that in mind. Yeah. Of course, rap music. So in that same vein of analogies, of course I can't limit myself to just Ikea or Nike. Really the idea behind this video-- he asked me to direct his music video. And it might be different for you guys, but my immediate reaction to anyone asking me anything is yes. And then I'll think about it and usually I won't say no. But 9 times out of 10, I should probably be like, Oh, I'm busy or whatever. But I just say yes. And he had asked me to direct this video. And I was like, yeah, let's do it. And I didn't even have the full idea yet, but I know my seven principles are of this in process thing. It's my signature. It's the way that I realize concepts. So we shot this. This was the second video I've ever shot. The first one was Fashion Killa with A$AP Rocky and Rihanna. It was a long time ago-- proud of that too. All of these videos that I've shot take place in the Mercer Hotel-- which is random, but it's a fact. But this is like the director's edit that I made, which is like the purest form of the idea, basically, before the record label adds a bunch of jazz. But it's to showcase that, hey, it's like if I'm asked or there's an opportunity exists. It's not about building a building, sending a graphic for this, or oh, I only do that. Keep that door open. And then you can make new works of art in different spaces. So my way of capturing this in process moments that I put myself in the process. So there's two points of view of this same narrative. The reason why I showed the Princess Diana sort of project in this one, is that I'm touching on a same social commentary part. It's like works of art that are distinctly made now influence with our pension to like something-- like see photos and press something. Princess Diana. That's like literally the world that she lived in by being the most photographed. Or this sort of energy that happens outside Prince and Mercer when there's famous people on the story. And then they just go through this mythical door that no one breaks that barrier. So this video was about that. You can't-- I'm not going to promote that. But basically, when those lines get crossed, and that that's what this was. It was me just traveling from the street through to making it all the way up to this hotel room. But telling that modern narrative story that people want to know more and get all the way up close to that information or synergy, just hang out with their favorite rap star or whatever-- that line. What does it look like once that barrier has been broken? So this sort of video takes place-- there's like figurative, all my friends are now alive wave. Yeah. But films-- moving imagery is such a good thing on the mood board. Not all mood board should be like Tumblr images. Yeah that was the end. Got fined 3k for the blood. Again, so this is mine. I urge-- Yeah, I always wanted to say this. Everyone's homework before next class is to make their own design language. Literally, I'm very upset that it took to me-- and I'm 37. It took me this long to-- well, I think it takes a lot of work and lot of projects to define that. Yours might only be like 2 or 3 at this point, or it could be 13. But it's like, why work? What are you working towards? You're either in or you're out. You could just be chill, but obviously, I take a huge passion about the creative work I do. It's not even work. It's just living for me. So the things that make it more tangible is that they make sense, and that there's a lineage-- at least that I'm focusing on a project irreverent to whatever medium it is. So in closing, basically put yourself in my shoes . It's super weird to have this light on me. I'm not that special. You guys have all the resources. And this is a message. Because obviously, I'll be hanging out on the corner talking to kids that are aspirational about doing something design work. And obviously, when they see me here, they're like, what? You're At Harvard? How come you don't come to like, wherever? And the whole point-- it's in my presentation. It's not about one or the other. It's that we're all in this one big conversation. So the whole point of this whole presentation of just stuff that normally doesn't get shown is, I'd rather share it to the world, so that somebody takes it and spins it off into something that is impactful for them. So with that, I need that Converse Chuck Taylor back. Where is it? All right. Yeah, that was basically it. But this one is you. The idea that-- you know. I don't know what your internal metric is for what your goals are. They should all be very different. But you guys are born at a very awesome distinct time. I think that this is the Renaissance. Don't get trapped into this. Everything sucks. The world is coming to an end. That's just an internal mechanism, basically, to chill. When you don't have to put yourself out there, you can wake up every day and come up with excuses. But it's exactly the opposite. And I think you guys have an awesome education background. You're intrigued enough to come here-- this rambling of a bunch of random projects. But I know you guys. If you're interested in this, you guys are interested in tackling something that isn't seen yet. So with that, I'm done. [applause] We'll have about 10 minutes for questions. If you guys have any, there's two people with mics running. Hey. Yeah. Hey Virgil. Thanks for the amazing lecture and the product that you show. Well, I don't mind if you throw me a sneaker if I ask a bad question. So I actually watched the vide0-- it called Crash Course that you did with Nike. And I was the kid that you talk about that. I was put in the back of the live stream. Well, OK. Let's go to the questions. So, well, I might not be at the edge that you were the big fan of Michael Jordan, but I guess, well, I was at edge like Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. That was like quite on the hill. Stars? Yeah. Yeah. So my question is related to Allen Iverson was always asking. Like, is I'm talking about practice. So-- That he doesn't need to practice, basically? Yeah. I mean, so I'm curious. What's a routine practice that you're in your 30s schedule? If you can talk deeper about it, I-- That's a good question. I don't know about like analogies like, your brain is a muscle, have to like work it out or whatever, something weird. But something that was super impactful to me as a Prps vision-- what it used to be, this Tumblr that I have that I would photograph. I just trained my eye to be creative limited to one thing. That's what I'm doing now with the quotes. But do some random activity that forces your eye to see things that it normally wouldn't. That's for sure how I'm able to sort of-- and that call when I [inaudible] just iterating through like 13 things at one time until I can quickly get to an answer. You can't do that if you're casually being creative. It's like if you have to sit and you're like, OK, I'm going to solve this problem. You have to like intertwine it with how you see the world. I love my friend, Piot. He's like an art director for Off-White-- showed me his friend. He's got this Instagram that he photographs this one designer brand any time he sees it. So the whole Instagram-- so what it's done is, it's trained his brain. While he's casually doing something else, if he seems like, oh a black Chanel bag, just shoot it. And then all of a sudden, it's like this running sort of creative side. And I think if you want to find new space, if you want to like get to another crescendo of design and having your brain figure out how to esthetically put together something, you have to do it often. That's what I found myself. Yeah. Good. I guess. What's up, Virgil. My name's Peter from Mathematic Athletics. You mentioned having mentors, especially dead ones. I'm trying to figure out, what's the best way-- and not like, no sorcery stuff-- like, are you communicating? What type of question are you asking mentors in a past that are no longer here? For me, the number one before getting into the nuance is, why? I can think. It's like, why do we love rock 'n' roll graphics? Or something like, why do we love hoodies? Why do we love designer something? That sort of gets the first nuance as to the ethos. Every mentor I have, or like someone that's passed, and look into their work, it seems like they had to cut. They have a narrow view, and all the work that you love fits into this view. And I think it's about having a dialogue with why you're making these decisions. There's a certain creative things that you decide before you even get to solving it. And that's why it's important to have somebody that you look up to and constantly conversate. And the most important thing is having someone edit your work. At this point, there's no wrong answer in design, but there's a right way to edit. And don't think about it in that harsh way. It's basically, look at it as a communication art exercise. That's what design essentially is. I have these ideas in my head. I put them in this inanimate object. Hopefully, you get this long winded speech. And what I've done is, I've made it my practice. That whole long 90 page presentation was just-- I just gleamed out of that those seven bullet points, so you guys got the cheat code. But this shoe is so many details through that you can maybe get it. And that's probably why our conversation with all of you guys that I haven't met, but if you see this shoe, we're sort of halfway talking. And then I listed it off six mentors. So in a nutshell, that's literally my whole brain on display. OK. Last question. What would you describe your defining moment-- like your "Aha!" moment as a designer? Yeah, it was the fact that there is no "Aha!" moment. That's the one that tripped me up the most. I still, to this day, am reluctant to call myself a designer because I believe that designer ] look like me, which is like a deeper-- that's like a bar. Rapper Quavo comes over there and he's like, oh shit! But that was my biggest hurdle. And that's what I mean to tell. That's the main message that I'm delivering, is that most of these hurdles are self-imposed as designers. They literally don't exist. There is no failure. Failure is like as real as like Halloween ghosts. Do you know? And as a designer, I literally was like, oh, I'm just going to work in an office. I'm going to work and be an assistant to a bigger firm in architecture. And then on the weekends, I was going to DJ and be into supreme shirts or something like that. And listen and go to Travis Scott Shows or something. I was like, that's what life is-- 9:00 to 5:00. And then the "Aha!" moment was like, wait. I can just put work out and if it's good, it works. If it's bad, no one notices. Then I can just get better at it. And then I could run into a friend or a brand, and be like, hey, I've got an idea. So that's the reality. That's what I flew in peace out. The cool kids are out. But that's the reality. I wanted to fly here and-- it was really Oana's idea. Our text messages is really good, but she had the foresight. But I wanted to just come and just say those few things. And then hopefully you guys run with it. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Virgil. So two quick questions. Well, actually statement first. I have a share for you. So first question is, yes or no real quick. Can you sign my shoes after this? Second question is-- If you want me to sign something-- I've got to leave in 10 minutes, so I'll do it. Right now? OK, I'll walk up. I just got to-- You've got to throw it. You have to throw it from there, and I have to catch. If I don't catch it, all of these shoes, I'll take five shoes. Yo, everyone hearing this? I'm going to be decent human being. I'm going to be a decent human being. Just leave mine right here. I got a marker for you. I got a marker right here. This is going to keep going because the mic's still on. Somebody make a video of this because I'm [inaudible]..