Make It Ours - by Robin Givhan (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Virgil Abloh's appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018 shocked the fashion industry, as he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's 164-year history. But as Pulitzer Prize- winning culture critic Robin Givhan reveals, Abloh's story encompasses so much more than his own journey. Using Abloh's surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates--how their notions of what was luxury simultaneously anticipated and upended consumer preferences, and how a simple T-shirt held as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. As Givhan relays, Abloh rose during a time of existential angst for a fashion industry trying to make sense of its responsibilities to a diverse audience and the challenges of selling status to a generation of consumers who fetishized sneakers and prioritized comfort. The story of how that moment came to be, and how someone like Abloh-- who had no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring- -could come to symbolize and embody the industry's way forward, is the story at the heart of this book. Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh's family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh's mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man's rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste"--

Book Synopsis

"An illuminating . . . biography and cultural history" (The New York Times) of Virgil Abloh's iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry, which embodied a groundbreaking transformation of the relationship between who we are and what we wear.

"[Robin Givhan] captures that shift with the kind of clarity and nuance that honors the late designers' many layers. There's never been a book like this."--Essence

Virgil Abloh's appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018 shocked the fashion industry, as he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand's 164-year history. But as Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Robin Givhan reveals, Abloh's story encompasses so much more than his own journey.

Using Abloh's surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates--how their notions of what was luxury simultaneously anticipated and upended consumer preferences, and how a simple T-shirt held as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. As Givhan relays, Abloh rose during a time of existential angst for a fashion industry trying to make sense of its responsibilities to a diverse audience and the challenges of selling status to a generation of consumers who fetishized sneakers and prioritized comfort. The story of how that moment came to be, and how someone like Abloh--who had no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring--could come to symbolize and embody the industry's way forward, is the story at the heart of this book.

Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh's family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh's mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man's rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste.

Review Quotes

"Toggling between biography and cultural history, Givhan . . . offers an illuminating analysis of [Virgil] Abloh's middle-class, first-generation American upbringing, one that suggests his quiet confidence and seeming unflappability were deliberately cultivated."--The New York Times

"[A] deeply reported, genre-defying chronicle of the late designer's mission to remap luxury from the inside out."--Ebony

"Virgil Abloh . . . changed the way upper echelons of the [fashion] industry engage with younger generations and even social media. In Make It Ours, [Robin Givhan] captures that shift with the kind of clarity and nuance that honors the late designer's many layers."--ESSENCE

"Legendary . . . incisive and unflinching . . . One of [Givhan's] gifts is the acute power of observation."--SSENSE Magazine

"Robin Givhan's powerful new book explores a fashion legacy--and a life--that stretched far beyond labels. . . . The book is less a biography than it is a study of success in fashion and culture: the parameters around it, the roadblocks toward it, the precedents others have set for it."--Harper's Bazaar

"Givhan's book . . . is both a soft-focus biography and--far more valuably--a chronicle of the evolution and hybridisation of fashion, social media and Black American culture from 1980 (the year Abloh was born) to the current decade. . . . Make It Ours is the best book on the luxury business since Teri Agins' Hijacking the Runway."--Financial Times

"What makes Givhan's book so compelling is not only her analysis of the designer's creativity and ambition, but the historical context she builds around it--a reminder why [she] is an American icon in her own right."--Vanessa Friedman, Interview magazine

"Many journalists can vividly describe what's around them, but only the most talented can identify--in pretty much any public figure, any public event--worlds of meaning that the rest of us miss."--Frank Bruni, The New York Times

"Givhan's prose is elegant and cutting. [She] has written the definitive portrait of Virgil Abloh . . . a story about the future of fashion, and who deserves to shape it."--DSCENE

"Robin's look into the life and work of the late, great, Virgil Abloh is thoughtful, intelligent, honest, and masterfully crafted. Virgil's freethinking and influence on the possibilities of what creativity can be was a tour de force."--Marc Jacobs, founding creative director of Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear

"Thought-provoking, emotional, and illuminating, this book is a definite must-read!"--Tom Ford, designer and filmmaker

"Givhan tells the story of Virgil Abloh not just from the facts of where and when he was born and where he grew up, but what he stood for and what he wanted to communicate with the work he was doing."--Political Fashion

"Make It Ours is more than a biography of Abloh's rise and reign in the fashion world. Givhan deftly balances her intimate portrait of him with analysis of how the fashion industry has dealt with race and racism over the past century."--The Washington Post

"Make It Ours [is] informed by a deep curiosity. . . . The book is filled with industry anecdotes that'll thrill any fashion fan."--W Magazine

"A brilliant, captivating book. Make It Ours makes the case for a true cultural giant."--Elaine Welteroth, bestselling author of More Than Enough

"Virgil's journey from humble beginnings to the top of the fashion industry is one that needs to be studied. Make It Ours is a thrilling journey into the mind of a genius."--Edward Enninful, former editor in chief of British Vogue

"[Make It Ours] chronicles the intersection of a man and a moment, a time of disruptive change in the fashion industry, and a figure who was uniquely primed to seize that opportunity."--ELLE

"[Givhan's] sharp blend of biography, cultural history, and fashion criticism . . . reconsiders the meaning of luxury and who gets to decide."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

Robin Givhan is The Washington Post's senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race, and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. In addition to the Post, where she has also covered Michelle Obama, Givhan has worked at Newsweek, Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press.