NEW CONCEPTS@NORDSTROM LAUNCHES CONCEPT 018: VIRGIL ABLOH SECURITIES
New Concepts@Nordstrom is pleased to announce Concept 018: Virgil Abloh Securities. In partnership with his estate, the latest iteration of New Concepts is a celebration of Virgil Abloh’s multidisciplinary practice across fashion, art, and culture.
What started as a WhatsApp conversation about reimagining retail evolved into a way to amplify the work of Virgil Abloh Securities across art, architecture, engineering, creative direction, industrial design, fashion, film, writing, and philanthropy. Virgil Abloh Securities is a Virgil Abloh-founded creative corporation that intends to maintain Abloh’s approach and ethos over the coming years.
Spanning fashion, art, music, and culture, the far-reaching practice of late visionary Virgil Abloh (1980–2021) fundamentally reshaped how we see creativity and the world around us. True to Abloh’s genre-defying practice and a myriad of simultaneous endeavors, Concept 018 unifies several of Abloh’s flagship projects under one banner. That includes his fashion label Off-White, creative studio Alaska Alaska, art store Canary Yellow, and the Church & State merchandise from Abloh’s “Figures of Speech” exhibition.
As part of Concept 018: Virgil Abloh Securities, Nordstrom is a Major Sponsor of Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech,” an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Nordstrom partnered with the Brooklyn Museum on the exhibition opening party in June, as well as the Brooklyn Talk series that honored the profound legacy of Abloh alongside members of his creative community. Throughout the duration of the exhibition and the New Concepts shop, Nordstrom will continue to partner on events and activations with the Brooklyn Museum including the Social Sculpture series featuring Jian DeLeon, Men’s Fashion and Editorial Director at Nordstrom, and their Teen Night programming where Nordstrom will participate in a mentorship session. The exhibition is open now through January 2023.
“We are excited and honored to bring Concept 018: Virgil Abloh Securities to fruition”, says Sam Lobban, EVP GMM of Apparel and Designer at Nordstrom. “We started working on the project with Virgil and his team back in March 2021, and hope that the end result can help in celebrating his passion, energy, and purpose which he brought to every endeavor. We’re grateful to Shannon Abloh and the Virgil Abloh Securities team for the opportunity, and excited for our customers to be able to participate in continuing his legacy.”
ABOVE: Brooklyn Museum photos by Atiba Jefferson
The shop features a range of women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, shoes, and accessories including an exclusive Off-White Capsule, apparel capsules from Denim Tears x Canary Yellow and American skateboarder Sal Barbier and Off-White. Concept 018 also includes Off-White fragrance as well as apparel and accessories for adults and kids from Abloh’s “Figures of Speech” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Products range from $9 to $2,760 USD.
“Virgil Abloh was one of those rare creatives whose work resonated on a universal level, but also had a way of making everyone who interacted with him feel like the most important person in the room,” says Jian DeLeon, Men’s Fashion and Editorial Director at Nordstrom. “Above all, he was a champion of the youth who firmly believed that anyone could do the things he did. We hope this project helps carry the torch he lit.”
Kicking off with Concept 018, Nordstrom will support the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s Virgil AblohTM “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund through the fostering of equity and inclusion in the fashion industry by providing scholarships to students of academic promise of Black, African-American, or African descent. The fund will include a direct donation for selected scholars from their fashion program and the opportunity to participate in mentorship sessions with Nordstrom executives to learn about the inner workings of the retail business.
“We have been so gratified by the outpouring of support for the Virgil AblohTM “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund and are honored to carry forward the work that Virgil started with the generous support of partners like Nordstrom,” says Peter Arnold, Executive Director of the Fashion Scholarship Fund.
Concept 018: Virgil Abloh Securities is available online starting August 11 through the end of October at Nordstrom.com/NewConcepts, Nordstrom.ca/NewConcepts, as well as 15 retail locations including Nordstrom Downtown Seattle (Seattle, WA), Nordstrom South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA), Nordstrom Valley Fair (San Jose, CA), Nordstrom Northpark (Dallas, TX), Nordstrom Men’s Store NYC (New York, NY), Nordstrom Michigan Avenue (Chicago, IL), Nordstrom Pacific Centre (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Nordstrom Valley Fair (San Jose, CA), Nordstrom Century City (Los Angeles, CA), Nordstrom Tysons Corner (McLean, VA), Nordstrom Phipps Plaza (Atlanta), Nordstrom Aventura (Aventura, FL), Nordstrom Domain Northside (Austin, TX), Nordstrom Topanga (Los Angeles, CA) and Nordstrom Ross Park (Pittsburgh, PA).
New Concepts@Nordstrom is a platform to discover what is next and best in fashion through partnerships with the world’s most exciting brands, as these unique collections come to life in the custom-built environments at our flagship stores and online. The ongoing series of digital and physical pop-up shops invites customers to discover the newest products through exclusive partnerships.