Welcome to a special summer episode of Material Matters. With listeners going on holiday and looking for something to read, rather than investigate a material it seemed like a good idea to talk about a new book instead. 

Robin Givhan is the Washington Post’s senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race and the arts. She won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2006 and is the author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. 

Her latest book is entitled Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh, which charts the life of the late designer from his childhood in Rockford, Illinois to his position as artistic director at Louis Vuitton menswear collection in Paris, the first black person to serve in that role in the brand’s 164-year history. 

It also illustrates the profound changes that occurred in the luxury fashion industry over his short but fascinating career.

In this episode, we talk about: why fashion matters; the role of the critic; Virgil Abloh’s ‘confounding’ qualities; how he created an extraordinary community; his imprint on fashion; how the world of luxury shifted around him; being the ‘ultimate non-perfectionist’; his controversial 3 per cent philosophy; judging value; craft and luxury; why the designer was ‘the right kind of Black man’; a pivotal relationship with rapper and producer Kanye West; the importance of T shirts; how Abloh became artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection; his tragic death; and his legacy. 

To buy a copy of Make it Ours, priced £20, from Material Matters contact us at: [email protected]

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