Inside the Paris exhibition cataloguing Virgil Abloh’s extraordinary archive

Virgil Abloh’s story is fabled. From designing T-shirts for a Chicago print shop in the mid-2000s to making history as the first Black creative director at a Parisian house a decade and a half later, the self-taught American designer reached a level of fame that stretched far beyond fashion. Part of a group of designers responsible for shifting the connotations of streetwear at his own brand Off-White and, later, at Louis Vuitton men’s, his work would go on to provide a fantastical vision of contemporary style, bridging the worlds of design, popular culture, music and celebrity in the process.

And, while certain aspects of his approach were scrutinised – such as his three per cent rule, where if you marginally change a design you make it new – these acts of defiance against the status quo helped Abloh redefine the remits of creativity, power and influence in the industry and beyond. The legacy he left after his death in 2021 (following a private battle with cancer) is perhaps best surmised in his widely circulated quote: ‘You can do it too.’

Inside ‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’ exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris

This week at the Grand Palais in Paris, a new exhibition opens the doors of Abloh’s archive, telling the story of his singular career through 1,000 objects and designs. Brought to life by Nike and the Virgil Abloh Archive, it assembles many of his most significant works, spanning two decades (as well as posthumous projects, such as a one-off McIntosh amplifier in vivid orange) and the late designer’s prismatic interests (fashion, footwear, architecture, music, industrial design, painting, sculpture, printed matter, and advertising). The display opened on 30 September – the designer’s birthday, when he would have turned 45 – and runs until 9 October 2025.

Many of his most important designs for Nike feature in the exhibition, which is titled ‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’, such as the plastic-tagged and quote-mark emblazoned trainers that were highly desirable in the 2010s. Elsewhere, Abloh’s T-shirt ballgowns sit beside treasures designed by others that he accumulated over decades, gathered alongside an archive of sketches and essays he started collecting when he was just a teenager.

In the years after his death, the Virgil Abloh Archive has continued to preserve artefacts more formally, with this display marking the first time its contents have been presented in Europe. Curated by Chloe Sultan and Mahfuz Sultan, the exhibition expands on a display shown in Miami in 2022.

‘Since Virgil's passing, we've been privately working to build the Virgil Abloh Archive, a collection of objects that serve as a living record of his work and worldview,’ says the late designer’s wife, Shannon Abloh. ‘I could only imagine debuting this in Paris, Virgil's second home. A city whose creative energy perfectly lends to the spirit of “The Codes” and a true celebration of Virgil's vision and ethos. This offers an invitation to the world to engage and to build upon his ideas.’

The Paris exhibition runs alongside a series of events, workshops, DJ sets and screenings hosted by voices from Abloh’s broader creative community. There will also be a book released that further details the contents of Abloh’s archive, and includes several of the designer’s most significant collaborations and magazine covers, including one he created for Wallpaper in 2020. The limited-edition issue was matt white and featured a ‘cut’ line inviting readers to slice the magazine in two – a typical provocation from the designer.

‘Cutting the physical object makes the magazine come alive and reinforces the concept that the magazine’s media may be physical, but it also occupies a space figuratively and literally,’ he said at time of the design (a number of copies were signed by Abloh, benefitting his “Post Modern” Scholarship Fund).

It feels fitting that the exhibition unfolds over fashion week in Paris, where Abloh showed many of his most influential collections. With the display, Nike and The Virgil Abloh Foundation hope to celebrate his legacy in a city where his presence still reverberates, offering others a rare insight into his boundary-collapsing world. ‘Sharing his personal collection, unfinished work and magnum opuses with the world is a powerful way we honour Virgil’s deep belief in access and collaboration,’ says Shannon Abloh. ‘Through the Virgil Abloh Archive, his vision continues to inspire and guide the next generation.’

‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’ in partnership with Nike is on view at the Grand Palais until 9 October 2025.