Left: Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer Mercedes-Benz, Right: Virgil Abloh. Portrait by Bafic.
At this point, Virgil Abloh’s love for artistic collaboration should come as no surprise. The Off-White creative director’s collaborative portfolio is as rich as it is dense including the likes of Nike, Ikea, Jimmy Choo and Evian. Abloh can now add Mercedes-Benz to that extensive portfolio, after it was announced that the Off-White creative director would be collaborating with the German car manufacturer on a yet-to-be released unique “artwork”. Details surrounding the collaboration remain scarce, although it is known that the artwork will incorporate design elements of the popular G-Class model, which will be released digitally on September 8th. A home-scale replica of Abloh’s artwork will be auctioned off following the digital launch with proceeds from the auction going to a charity that supports the arts.
This news comes as one of several charitable endeavours Abloh has unveiled in recent weeks. Abloh also recently announced that $1 million had been pledged to his “POST-MODERN” Scholarship fund which aims to support the next generation of black fashion industry leaders. On the nature of his Mercedes-Benz collaboration, Abloh stated that it was “truly a perfect chassis to interject modern artists’ ideas of what the future can be stylistically, within conceptual car design.” Abloh’s collaborations tend to garner insatiable hype, and this upcoming offering is likely be no different.