(Disclaimer: This write up was brought to you by a tweet chain by Jon Moy, a fashion writer I very much look up to. I got so defensive that I wanted to attempt to cohesively explain why I like it, and why certain mindsets against the brand are bad. Oh, and most of the photos are brought to you by Vogue.)

guys this is a serious honest question why is vetements better than off white? — gettingbeatlikeyoustolesomething (@gblyss) January 22, 2018

To sum up my thoughts: I like it. A lot.

Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh. One of the most notoriously popular brands to exist within the past 5 years. Some like to call it the next Supreme, which truthfully make much sense seeing as the entities are 2 completely different things, but I prefer to liken it to the affinity of A Bathing Ape. Both have massive influence amongst the mainstream medium of hip-hop today, and I believe Off-White will genuinely be able to go considerably farther with all of the endeavors Abloh has planned for the brand.

However, most of the fashion forums and fashionable people I know aren’t exactly fond of the brand. I’ve always noticed that there seems to be a lot of hate towards the brand when it’s compared to the likes of Vetements.

Quite frankly, I don’t necessarily understand all of the hate Off-White has garnered over the past couple of seasons.

Before I get into it though, let me preface this by saying that I’m not here to really change anyone’s mind on their personal feelings towards the brand. I’m hoping to really open up discussion on why we think some brands are strictly objectively worse than others. It’s completely fine to have personal taste regarding what you would wear and what you like seeing on other people, although sometimes I think we sometimes overlook the bigger picture.

For me at least, I believe in order to be a proper fashion critic, I have to be able to try to understand more than what a brand brings at a surface level. Most luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, YSL, and Gucci, along with having a ton of historical influence as high echelon fashion brands, also bring the intangible currency known as status. The value being offered is one that comes with the name first and foremost.

Off-White is by far one of the most influential brands I have ever seen conceptually within the past 5 years. When I think of high fashion brands in a vacuum, I like to conceptualize them for all the influence that they have brought upon the fashion community. Whether it’s B(Vetements)alenciaga and the importance of reviving and modernizing old/uncool trends, Hedi Slimane era Saint Laurent Paris and the entirety of the reappropriation of rockstar (sometimes coined “heroin chic”) culture, famous design houses reigned by charismatic and influential designers will always be able to make a specific aesthetic or styles that they embrace trickle down to the masses. The entire premise of Virgil Abloh’s concept behind Off-White is to “be a canvas” of sorts. Virgil has stated multiple times throughout interviews that he hopes to inspire DIY aesthetics.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

However, nothing is perfect. I can’t say that the brand isn’t without its faults. Though, I believe part of the reason people abhor Off-White so much stems from a lot of external reasons, ranging from the people wearing it to the lack of compelling patterns.

Think about it, if you pit Virgil Abloh and say Demna Gvasalia together and asked arbitrary “fashion insiders” who they thought was the better a better designer all around, 9 times out of 10 you’re usually going to hear Gvasalia. And often times, they are coupled with generic excuses mentioning why they don’t vibe with Off-White. A good majority of them tend to sound like: “I think the designs are lazy”, “Virgil is such a con artist, especially after learning about how Pyrex Visions came to be,” “It’s too expensive for what it is,” and my personal favorite, “It looks a lot like a reappropriation of old Raf and Margiela! Does he not have any kind of external influences outside of these two legends?!”

I’ll put it bluntly, I think some of excuses are shit, yet not all of them without some merit.

“I think the designs are lazy.”

This, I can get behind…somewhat. I understand that a lot of his lower tier collections (“For All” and a majority of the basic ready-to-wear collections per season) usually look incredibly uninspired, with similar patterns of construction lines and branding with a blaring “WHITE” or “WOMAN” heading always printed on the back of the piece. None of the designs really come off as subtle, and it definitely seems like he puts in a more substantial amount of effort towards his womenswear. Frankly, to an extent it’s pretty lazy. However, I truly believe that he uses his lower tier products to fuel his cut-and-sew ready to wear as well as his future endeavors, similar to how Rei Kawakubo utilizes her Comme Des Garcons Play line to fund her business ventures, or how Gosha Rubchinskiy or Jerry Lorenzo released Paccbet and FoG respectively to cater to a consumer with a lower price point.

In my opinion, there’s nothing really wrong with doing either. If you have a concept that shows to be working, why try to change it? It really doesn’t seem necessary to put more effort into basic designs if they are doing well.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“Virgil is such a con artist, especially after learning about how Pyrex Visions came to be.”

Now, when I usually hear this, the first thought that pops into my head usually consists of, “…what does this matter? More importantly, what does that have to do with what he’s doing now?”

People tend to dredge up their past animosities towards Virgil as an attempt to try to dismantle and repudiate all of the hard work he’s done for his design house.

A lot of designers had come ups by having a specific niche before they ventured into the game of high fashion. For example, avant-garde legend Rick Owens started his fashion endeavors by making counterfeit clothing before venturing into the higher fashion market with his own ideological aesthetic. I like to believe what made Pyrex Visions have such a clean transition to Off-White was due to the influence and marketing tactics he had while being able to maintain a specific trademark at a low cost.

Yes, Pyrex Visions pretty much consisted of Ralph Lauren Polo Rugby Flannels, Champion hoodies, sweaters, and basketball shorts all while he bought them out at wholesale. Nevertheless, the magic behind it was the exclusivity and concept behind what the earlier brand stood for. The premise of what would later be considered Abloh’s personal canvas was in the making. The pragmatism behind the basic infrastructure would be what fuels his future lower tier collections today.

Like I said before, a concept that has shown to work in the past, is clearly still working today.

“It’s too expensive for what it is.”

This is high fashion. In order to appeal to a certain audience, you have to make the audience believe that there is a certain value of the product that’s worth paying for. It’s supposed to be more of an experience vs. just buying a product because you like the way it look.

Virgil has said multiple times in various interviews that although the premise of Off-White is for the “youth”, his target audience is not exactly kids. I’ve realized over time that I recognize his target audience is not so much the literal youth, but more so youthful people with deep pockets. I mean, we don’t exactly condemn Demna for doing the same thing, especially at a higher price point.

Truthfully, there’s nothing wrong with that. If you have someone that sees value in a specific piece of clothing, and have the capital to afford buying it, then that’s their prerogative and theirs alone.

“It looks a lot like a reappropriation of old Raf and Margiela!”

This is the most indolent comment of all. It feels like such a massive cop out of an argument that I usually don’t like giving it any time of day, but I’ll bite this time around.

My issue is that:

I believe it’s very hard for brands to be able to NOT pull inspiration from some of the most influential brands in the ’90s and early ’00s (and by that, I’m generally referring to Maison Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto, Ann Demeulemeester, and Alexander McQueen). This was a particularly critical era for high fashion and began the influence for what we consider “high streetwear” now, but that’s another story. Virgil has stated numerous times that a lot of his looks have been influenced by Margiela and Raf. Personally, I believe as long as you are not outright copying designs and claiming them as your own, with your originality or paying homage to the designer you pulled inspiration from, then it’s fine.

Which is why I don’t really see what the issue is. Kanye West for Yeezy Season 1 pulled a lot of influence from Helmut Lang, but was still able to pull off a pretty good collection (especially for a first one). Mike Amiri pulls from Hedi Slimane practically every day, and it’s weird that no one is willing to bat an eye at that, while Jakob Hetzer pulled a lot of his Stable collection looks from the ’90s Jun Takahashi Undercoverism designs.

My point is that every designer has to draw influence from somewhere before being able to find their own niche. Sure, the designers I listed above are not on the same level as Virgil, but I fail to see the difference in the core concept of what they’re doing. Drawing influence is not the same as outright copying designs. It’s not entirely fair to judge someone who has only started out in the high fashion scene/has not been in the industry for long (and let’s face it, Virgil has only been in the high fashion scene for at least 4 years). If we’re willing to hold the same standards for newer designers to not be as contrived as their influences, then we’ll have to pretty much put every up and coming high fashion brand under a microscope and be incredibly judgmental towards them.

Virgil Abloh did not come from a particularly structured fashion background like Raf Simons, Demna Gvasalia, or Dries Van Noten did. However, I also do not think it is fair that these specific people are not as brought down as Virgil Abloh is when they’re within the same realm. Sure, Raf and Dries are literal legends in the high fashion industry, and Demna is well on his way there, but there are also tons of legendary designers that didn’t come from traditional fashion schools, such as Karl Lagerfeld, Cristobal Balenciaga, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Philip Lim, and Miuccia Prada. I know, these are pretty extreme examples, but I think the essence here is that it’s possible to be successful and not have the same backgrounds as your influential fore(mothers)fathers.

With Off-White, I think it’s important for people to look at it in the light of being more a concept; a lifestyle (soon enough) more than a brand. With all of the collaborations and artistic endeavors Abloh has been accomplishing within the past 2-3 years, it goes to show that Off-White is more than just a run of the mill streetwear brand that no one will remember 10 years from now. The design house itself seems like they’re making headway to becoming a long standing high fashion concept, similar to the fashion entity that is Ralph Lauren or Comme Des Garcons.

Well, that’s just what I think anyway.