Paris Fashion Week: Off-White Men’s Fall 2017 Collection & Women’s Pre-Fall 2017 Collection

American fashion designer Virgil Abloh presented his Off-White Men’s Fall 2017 Collection and Women’s Pre-Fall 2017 collection entitled “Seeing Things” at Paris Fashion Week.

This time around, Abloh‘s show was more diverse than in the past. He was called out for the lack of diversity at his Off White Fall 2016 show (see it here) and Off White Spring 2016 show (see it here). I actually decided to stop covering Abloh‘s shows and reporting on Off-White for a few seasons, until I started seeing more diversity.

Abloh is one of the most innovative people in streetwear that Black youth could relate to and connect with. He’s a prime example that a streetwear brand could be sold on the same floor, next to luxury labels at Barneys, Saks 5th Avenue, and Bergdorf Gooman. Thanks to Kanye West, Virgil Abloh has a major fashion platform (he was once best known as Kanye West‘s creative director) and has been called the “Maestro of Elevated Streetwear” by Vogue.

“I love fashion, I’m a consumer of fashion myself,” said the designer backstage at his show the other day.

At his show in Paris, Abloh staged fallen leaves and spindly birch trees within the Maison de l’UNESCO’s modernist setting. The designer wanted us to see that he can move from the skate-kid trope to the novel archetype of “art dad.” “The ethos was not to be preoccupied with youth,” he explained. “It was to put something wearable at the forefront but from an elder generation, using the exploratory idea that youth is ageless.”

The collection features a lot of things: teddy-bear trench, sky-blue nylon anorak, corduroy baggies, parkas edged with electric blue fur, extra-long mohair sweater, widened pants, coats and more.

“I have this memory from when I was a kid of lying in the forest; when you wear a sweater, they stick on you,” Abloh explained.