LVMH Strengthens Partnership With Virgil Abloh, Becomes Majority Investor in Off-White

Virgil Abloh will, of course, continue in his roles as artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection and creative director of Off-White.

virgil
Getty

Image via Getty/Christian Vierig/Contributor

virgil

LVMH has announced that it is becoming a majority investor in Off-White, with LVMH and Virgil Abloh both agreeing to “jointly pursue” new projects across a wide spectrum of luxury categories.

On Tuesday, LVMH and Abloh announced a definitive agreement in which LVMH will acquire a majority stake in Off-White LLC, which is the trademark owner of Off-White. After the acquisition, per a press release, LVMH will own a 60 percent interest in the trademark. Abloh, meanwhile, will retain a 40 percent interest and will also continue as creative director of the brand.

Also continuing, of course, is Abloh’s role at Louis Vuitton as artistic director of the French fashion house’s menswear collection. 

“For nearly a decade, we’ve been building Off-White to be a brand designed to empower our generation and challenge the status quo,” Abloh said in a statement released Tuesday morning. “LVMH brings to the table the additional firepower and scale to accelerate our momentum and evolve Off-White into a truly multi-line luxury brand.” 

LVMH and Abloh have also agreed to “leverage together the Group’s expertise” by launching new brands and partnering with existing ones in a number of fields “beyond the realm of fashion.” And as announced on Tuesday, early talks about such partnerships have already started.

“I’m incredibly excited to work together with LVMH on other possible collaborations—an evolution of the great relationship I have had with LVMH, Bernard Arnault, Michael Burke at Louis Vuitton, and others,” Abloh said. “I’m also honored to use this partnership to deepen my longstanding commitment to expand opportunities for diverse individuals and foster greater equity and inclusion in the industries we serve. This is an incredible new platform to take the disruption we’ve achieved together to a whole new level.”

The newly announced transaction is subject to regulatory approval but is expected to be finalized within the next couple months.

Latest in Style