‘Taking the familiar and making it new’. That was the drawing board manifesto for Virgil Abloh’s new Off-White™ HOME collection now available via the Off-White™ website. Conceptualised by Abloh with the intention of dressing every room in the home – from front entrance to bedroom, kitchen to living space – the collection is characterised by a HOME orange fluorescent label, its inspiration drawn from Off-White’s ready-to-wear collection. Pieces are presented, variously, with Abloh’s signature swimming man logo, ‘Off-hand’ and ‘Off-cross’ logos, and distinctive meteor holes while the colour palette is mostly neutral; black-grey-beige tones with fluorescent pink and orange accents. ‘I’ve taken familiar items in the home and produced them in a way akin to my personal signatures, prioritising craftsmanship and celebrating the sophisticated modernity of Off-White™ explains Abloh. ‘Taking something familiar and making it new means that you are essentially designing with fragments of your mind.’
The new collection adds Off-White’s signature, trademark language, branding and methodology to everyday items and furnishes them with a fresh perspective, a system of voids and holes providing what Abloh calls, ‘a logic of seeing through something to make more of an identified connection with that object.’
The collection begins at the home’s front door entrance – three doormats in three assorted models and sizes to adapt to different spaces and needs. For the living room, the HOME Collection includes a series of mohair throw blankets and pillows, the inspiration for these pieces coming from Off-White’s ready-to-wear collection. Additionally, the collection holds cylindrical-shaped upholstered stools covered in fabric printed with wave, bird and arrow motif graphics also from the ready-to-wear collection – with wallpaper offerings in identical patterns. Ceramic pieces for the kitchen and living room are inspired by the designer’s fascination with Japan’s wabi-sabi aesthetic which centres on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. ‘The fact that what is perfect, is questioned,’ muses Virgil. ‘Are these things made by hand...or by machine?’
Off-White™ HOME’s take on the humble umbrella adds an interior graphic that reads ‘insert sunshine here’, visible only to the user when the brolly is fully opened. ‘The idea of "Insert Sunshine Here" printed on the inside of an umbrella is a culmination of Off-White™ signatures coming to a crescendo, says Abloh. ‘Text, language, emotion and directive....the DNA of Off-White™ manifested on home objects.’ §
