Virgil Abloh, artistic director for Louis Vuitton and Off-White founder, dies of cancer at 41

Virgil Abloh, the acclaimed menswear designer for Louis Vuitton and founder and CEO of Off-White, died Sunday of cancer, according to a post from his verified Instagram account. He was 41.

Abloh was a true multi-hyphenate -- first, and foremost a fashion designer, who before making history as Louis Vuitton's first Black artistic director, founded the cultish streetwear label Off-White, reports CNN.

Abloh, the son of Ghanaian immigrants, was born in 1980 in Rockford, Illinois. He earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a master's degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology; a foundation that would later influence his broader practice.

Abloh was named among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2018, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented an exhibition of the work of "genre-bending artist and designer" in 2019.

Before his untimely death, he was working on a number of projects, including plans for a fashion show in Miami, Florida, to coincide with the opening of a new Louis Vuitton men's store in the city.