The acclaimed designer Virgil Abloh has passed away at the age of 41 after a two-year battle with cancer. The American designer and entrepreneur was originally trained as an architect, but his impact on the design world was felt throughout fashion, interior design, music, and product design.

While a student of the Master in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Abloh developed an interest in fashion having been partly inspired by a Rem Koolhaas building under construction at the campus. Following collaborations with Kanye West, Abloh founded the high-end streetwear brand Off-White in 2013. In 2018, he become the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear ready-wear line, while one year later, he was appointed to the board of directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

In tandem with his relentless successes in fashion, Abloh maintained an active interest in architecture and interior design throughout his career. In 2019, Koolhaas’ AMO co-designed an exhibition of Abloh’s work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, celebrating the designer’s moves in architecture, fashion, design, music, and art. Earlier this year, meanwhile, a new AMO-designed flagship store for Abloh’s Off-White was opened in Paris.

In 2019, Abloh teamed up with IKEA to release a collection named Markerad, named after the Swedish word for “clear-cut.” The 15-piece collection, which included Abloh-designed chairs, coffee tables, beds, storage cabinets, mirrors, and carpets, sought to “cater towards fluid and contemporary living.” Also in 2019, Abloh collaborated with Nike on the design of the NikeLab Chicago Re-Creation Center, which sought to reimagine physical retail design in the age of online shopping. In 2020, meanwhile, Abloh unveiled his Efflorescence furniture collection, crafted from hard concrete shapes embellished with bright graffiti and porous geometries with a Brutalist-lite undertone.

Abloh’s design capabilities were matched by his inspirational public speaking. In 2017, Abloh gave a lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design titled “Insert Complicated Title Here.” The public video of the hour-long lecture has been viewed over 1 million times on YouTube. Abloh was also the keynote speaker of the AIA 2020 Conference on Architecture.

Abloh’s creative focus also extended to social causes. In 2020, he announced a $1 million scholarship fund for Black fashion students, saying: “I've always been passionate about giving the next generation of students the same foundation for success that was given to me.” In 2017, Abloh collaborated with artist Jenny Holzer to create a fashion line celebrating immigration and cultural integration, as well as T-shirts to support Planned Parenthood and the Women’s March on Washington.

Abloh is survived by his wife Shannon Sundberg and his two children.