The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Thursday, December 7, 2017 — 5B

OFF-WHITE

Off-White designer weds 
fashion and architecture

Virgil Abloh draws from architectural and engineering 
background in pursuit of fresh and unexpected clothing

For anyone who knows fashion, 

it’s no mystery who Virgil Abloh 
is. Though he is now the creator 
of Off-White, Abloh’s journey to 
this position was certainly less 
than linear. In college, Abloh 
studied structural engineering 
at the University of Wisconsin—
Madison before realizing his 
interest in building design. He 
then went to the Illinois Institute 
of Technology to receive his 
master’s degree in architecture. 
From there, he would soon 
become a creative director for 
Kanye 
West’s 
creative 
think 

tank, DONDA. He would go on 
to receive a Grammy nomination 
for best recording package for 
the album Watch The Throne. 
Most recently, and probably most 
notably, 
however, 
Abloh 
has 

collaborated with Nike. Called 
“The Ten,” Abloh selected ten 
popular Nike shoes and added in 
some of his own design ethos.

While 
Abloh’s 
accomplishments 

and projects are difficult to count 
and keep track of, Abloh gave a 
lecture at the Harvard University 
Graduate School of Design on 
October 
26, 
titled 
“Program 

Organization, 
Sequencing 

Experiences,” an allusion to the 
well-known branding of many 
Off-White garments. Abloh was 
introduced 
by 
Harvard 
GSA 

design critic Oana Stanescu, 
whom Abloh has worked with on 
various projects, including Kanye 
West’s Yeezus tour set design and 
Off-White’s Hong Kong flagship 
store. Stanescu describes Abloh as 
“an architect of a different scale,” 
continuing “[his] work centers 
around the core of creative 
freedom.”

Abloh spent much of the lecture 

talking about the characteristics 

that define his signature and 
how these values are manifested 
in his designs and work. These 
component pieces ranged from 
his love of ready-made art and his 
desire to insert humanity through 
conversation to his actual design 
code. He mentioned his three-
percent approach, in which he 
never edits something more than 
three-percent from its original 
form. He has other values that 
are important to him, such as the 
beauty of a work in progress or 
making sure that a design has a 
reason to exist. He points to his 
ability to know that enough is 
enough and that things don’t have 
to be perfect the first time.

In his words, the desire behind 

the lecture was not for attendees 
to see how far Abloh has come 
in his 37 years (in fact, Abloh 
attributes a lot of his success to 
dumb luck and knowing the right 
people). Instead, Abloh’s goal 
was for the audience to imagine 
themselves in his shoes and to put 
questions to themselves: What is 
your list of values? What makes 
you excited, and how can you 
make that thing happen?

Abloh also spent some time 

during the lecture talking about 
his mentors. He was quick 
to admit that he has a ton of 
mentors: old and young, dead and 
alive. During the Q&A after the 
lecture, someone asked Abloh 
about his relationship with his 
mentors who have passed. Abloh 
responded by discussing the 
value of understanding what their 
reasoning was for making certain 
design choices and how to apply 
that same rationale back into his 
own design.

From my perspective, the most 

interesting aspect of the lecture 
was the way in which Abloh was 
able to put himself in the shoes of 
the students that sat before him. 
Abloh tells his own story of how 

he was able to take a background 
of engineering and architecture 
and turn it into a career in fashion 
without entirely abandoning the 
things that he learned in school. 
That was what made it special. 
Abloh even did his best to try and 
distill what he has learned over 
the years into what he called his 
“cheat codes,” which were aimed 
to help people find their personal 
creative DNA.

Through 
this 
entire 

presentation, it became quite 
clear that Virgil Abloh is not an 
ordinary 
person. 
Sometimes, 

that manifests itself in his desire 
to constantly be innovating and 
doing cool, new things. Other 
times, it manifests itself by the 
fact that it constantly seems like 
he is doing a half-dozen things 
at once. From collaborations 
with IKEA, where he’s looking to 
design the millennial’s apartment, 
and his collaborations with Nike, 
to the constant output of designs 
for Off-White, it’s clear that Abloh 
is quick to draw inspiration from 
others and is often looking to 
push the envelope on what he’s 
allowed to do as a designer. In 
the past, I’ve considered some of 
Abloh’s designs to be uninspired, 
but learning about the thought 
process behind his designs has 
helped me learn that this isn’t 
quite the case.

Abloh said himself that he isn’t 

a big deal, even acting confused as 
to why he was at the front of the 
lecture hall giving a talk. But that 
all seemed to fade away as he was 
rushed by a mob of kids looking for 
him to sign their sneakers. Along 
with the rest of Abloh’s designs, 
these sneakers show the years 
of hard work and commitment 
to improving his own eye for 
design, incorporating things that 
he learned in the classroom along 
with things that he’s learned in 
the real world.

NARESH IYENGAR

Daily Style Editor

Spending an afternoon 
wandering the UMMA

Experiencing the University through the dichotomous 
architecture and genre-spanning works at the museum

It was a busy day at the 

University’s Museum of Art. 
Students were filing in and out 
as tour guides led their groups 
through the galleries. Visitors 
from all ages could be seen 
wandering the museum. Young 
kids on tours were running 
through the hallways trying 
to keep up with their groups, 
students were typing away at 
their computers and middle aged 
and elderly adults were walking 
freely and admiring the art. From 
my point of view, sitting at a bench 
by the gift store, I could see all of 
this, and I could see the students 
who walked past the building on 
their way to class. Some of them 
walked determinedly, with their 
gaze forward and at a quick pace. 
Most of them, however, averted 
their eyes.

The UMMA is known as Ann 

Arbor’s meeting place for the 
arts. It “contains a comprehensive 
collection that represents more 
than 150 years at the university, 
with nearly 19,000 works of 
art that span cultures, eras and 
media.” Works by artists like 
Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet 
are permanently exhibited in 
the museum galleries, but it 
also hosts around four or five 
travelling exhibitions every year. 
From ancient artifacts to modern 
paintings and digital media, 
art in all of its mediums can be 
admired in the museum. The 
space provided by the UMMA is 
unparalleled by other buildings 
on campus. There are few other 
buildings at the University that 
are versatile enough to hold such 
a wide array of events and attract 
such a diverse group of visitors.

Despite its versatility and 

prestige, 
walking 
through 

the UMMA may seem a scary 
undertaking for students and 
community members who know 
little about art. The UMMA has 
a reputation among students as 
being a place designed only for a 
specific audience. When looking 
at the building itself, it is not 
hard to imagine that art history 
majors, Stamps professors, art 
amateurs and museum experts 
are the intended consumers of 
the art inside. On one side of the 
building — the original wing — 
the neoclassical style architecture 
appears somber and heavy. On the 
other side — the new wing — the 
design is modern, sleek and has 
an airy feeling given by the wall-
sized windows. The dichotomy 
between 
these 
buildings 
is 

sometimes confusing and hard to 
decipher for visitors.

To join into the conversation 

between the two sides of the 
UMMA, 
it 
is 
important 
to 

understand the history and ideas 
behind the creation of both wings. 
On May 11, 1910, the building that 
we know as the original wing of 
the UMMA was inaugurated. 
Then known as Alumni Memorial 
Hall, this opulent building was 
the product of “a desire to honor 
those University men who had 
fallen in the Civil War.” One 
hundred years, a renovation and 
an addition later, the building 
stands tall on the corner of State 
Street and South University. With 
its four grand pillars, bronze doors 
and stone exteriors, the original 
building is a quintessential image 
of a memorial hall.

The solemn mood exhibited by 

this building can be off-putting 
to many visitors, especially when 
seen in contrast with the design 
of the new wing. Inaugurated in 
2009, the new wing of the UMMA 
was created to look and function 
as an art museum. The boxy, 
simple architecture of the new 
wing invites visitors and allows 
for art to spill from within the 
walls into the paths of passersby. 
The distinction between the two 
was not accidental or a product 
of chance. According to David 
Lawrence, the communications 
manager at the UMMA, “when 
people saw the old building they 
didn’t think art museum; they 
saw something more serious 
and 
less 
approachable.” 
The 

UMMA addition was deliberately 
designed in a more transparent, 
less somber way in an attempt to 
attract more visitors, to expand 
gallery space and to make the 
art housed in the museum more 
visible and public. In addition to 
the outdoor construction being 
designed 
in 
a 
contemporary 

and more transparent way, the 
interior of the museum, according 
to Lawrence, was “built as a 
wandering museum.”

The stark difference seen on 

the façades of these two wings 
becomes more interesting as the 
wandering journey through the 
museum starts. In the midst of 
the chitter-chatter and flows 
of people entering and exiting 
the galleries, I was getting a 
private tour. I was guided by a 
staff member, and even though 
he said that the point of entering 
the museum was to wander, I 
was taken on the correct route 
through the UMMA. We started 
at the old wing with Western 
art, and we ended at the vertical 
gallery — which displayed some 
of the University’s biggest modern 
paintings.

When we were on the highest 

floor of the vertical gallery, I 
could see the African art gallery, 
the photography gallery and the 
contemporary art gallery. Even 
though I could see most of the 
galleries displayed in the new 
wing, the path to any of these 
places wasn’t clear. My guide 
effortlessly 
cruised 
through 

and took me to every gallery 
without a problem. I was kind of 
disappointed that I did not get to 
discover the museum by myself, 
but throughout my tour I started 
picking up bits and pieces of other 
people’s experiences.

My 
guide 
was 
quickly 

divulging every fact about the 
history, design and most famous 
art pieces in the UMMA, but 
the rest of the visitors did not 
have 
this 
advantage. 
Rather 

than being promptly walked 
by a guide, most of them stood 
in front of and questioned the 
art pieces for as long as they 
wanted. I was getting all of 
the information, but they were 
getting the adventure. Quietly, 
but in a determined manner, I 
could see how each of the visitors 
I observed were carving their 
own space within the galleries. 
Some were adamantly admiring 
the photography, and others were 
interested in the Picasso pieces. 
The maze within the museum 
allowed every visitor to adventure 
and create their own personalized 
tour of the galleries, and, in that 
way, the mezzanines and four-
foot-high paintings seemed less 
intimidating.

The experience of visiting 

the UMMA cannot be described 
without talking about the design 
and 
layout 
of 
the 
building. 

Walking through the galleries 
and exploring is directly affected 
by the layout of the space. With 
the wandering museum design, 
visitors at the UMMA can take 
advantage of the secluded rooms 
and nooks to make the space their 
own and consume the art in their 
own terms.

ANDREA PEREZ

Daily Arts Writer

CEREN DAG/DAILY

CEREN DAG/DAILY

In the midst 

of the chitter-

chatter and flows 

of people entering 

and exiting the 

galleries, I was 

getting a private 

tour. 

STYLE NOTEBOOK
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK