Virgil Abloh and Hiroshi Fujiwara on Their Off-Black Collaboration and Being Inspired by Kenyan Warriors

Virgil Abloh and Hiroshi Fujiwara talk about the relationship between streetwear and high-end fashion.

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Complex Original

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As part of the Off-Black collaboration between Off-White and The POOL Aoyama, the brand's respective design heads Virgil Abloh and Hiroshi Fujiwara spoke with Honeyee about the concept. The two speak separately on how the concept came together, the inspirations behind it, and the current relationship between streetwear and high-end fashion in an interview translated by Hypebeast.

Fujiwara speaks specifically about how Abloh was inspired by The POOL Aoyama's ongoing Melanism concept. "I talked to Virgil about the theme of the POOL aoyama which is MELANISM," the designer told Honeyee. "We wanted to create something together with a keyword BLACK, and we also wanted to make that thing not just another collaboration of mine but a collection called 'OFF-BLACK.'" 

The O.G. streetwear designer also talks about how the relationship between street-influenced designs and high-end has changed for the worse over the years. "I feel there was some 'virtue' in our street fashion that we stared without formal fashion lectures, and the 'virtue' is vanishing now," Fujiwara said. "In other words, I am so not interested in luxury brands making luxury sneakers. It is missing the point to appreciate under the pretty package... Even those who were once street fashion people started to study things and ended up making boring things. And luxury started to bring streetwear under their conscious, that just made them look questioning to themselves." 

Abloh, who says that he has been personally inspired by Fujiwara over the course of his design career, speaks on the inspiration for the fabric used in the collaboration. "I was inspired by Maasai Warriors of Kenya and their traditional tartan type fabrics." 

The collaborative collection drops on Aug. 29. 

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