The new Off-White™ Instagram account unveiling the creative process of the brand

«What’s a fashion show today, anyways? How can it it be more than it was yesterday?⁣»

Virgil Abloh wrote in a laced Instagram post announcing the launch of a new Instagram account for Off-White™ (the 32nd to be precise) named @off__white__seasons. The account was born in the wake of the very recent trend of creative transparency - that trend, accelerated by the digital turn imposed by the lockdown, which has pushed more and more designers such as Alessandro Michele, Jonathan Anderson, John Galliano or Simon Porte Jacquemus to make the public the behind-the-scenes of the creation of campaigns, collections and fashion shows. The new Instagram page, however, will also serve as a digital showcase dedicated to the presentation of the collections, which will also be accompanied by various collateral content such as screenshots of messages, insights, backstage details, fragments of interviews and so on. In this sense, therefore, Abloh operates in a similar way to Demna Gvasalia who presented Balenciaga's Resort 2021 on their Instagram Stories, without teasers, announcements or notices whatsoever. 

The target of the new social project is not only the Off-White™ community but all young designers who are looking for inspiration or would like to take a closer look at the gears of a creative design team. As Abloh explained to Vogue:

«If I were a 17-year-old kid and I wanted to learn how to get into fashion, all I would want is a documentary or an Instagram account where I could see how the idea comes to life [...]. So this account to me is going to be the home of future seasons; it will be the place where we can story-tell and show our process, thereby letting people into the DNA of Off-White, not just the surface of Off-White.».

A kind of openness that, in an age when consumers demand an increasingly emotional relationship with those companies or brands that populate their daily lives thanks to social media, is designed to dip even deeper the old and new followers of Off-White™ in the reality of the brand – and in a way that is not commercial in a blatant way but has an informational vocation, especially towards a younger target: Abloh wants to become a mentor. And while Abloh's latest charitable initiatives have often been read with animosity by the public, the Chicago-based designer seems to have taken seriously this new vocation of driving for young people, as evidenced by the million-dollar scholarship earmarked for young black creatives, regardless of any criticism. In the words of Abloh himself:

«Rather than focusing on, sort of, inherent negative energy, I stay focusing on the 17-year-old that wants to take my job one day. […] So what would I look like if I were fearful of someone that wants to spread negative energy and use me as a backboard?»

In short, the account has a practical function and an idealistic one that coexists side by side. After all, in the same interview, Abloh said that Off-White™ shows will return to being physical when things will have calmed down – and if the new account had the sole function of a digital showcase, it would have fallen into disuse with the return of physical shows. In doing so Abloh has returned to do what he does best, mixing noble soul aspirations and marketing – alchemy that, at least in the case of this new account, works and that provides a unique point of view in the creative process of a designer who, for better or worse, has marked the fashion of our times.