December 17, 2019 |
Museum gift shops tend to be pretty lousy. A few mugs here, a selection of poorly printed t-shirts there. A bulk load of different coloured rubbers which sit there, unpurchased and neglected. Whenever we go on a museum outing, we tend to head straight to the postcard section (five for under a fiver – a bargain!). Well, all that’s about to change, thanks to Mr. Virgil Abloh. The designer/ DJ /curator/ everything has teamed up with Musée du Louvre to design an Off-White capsule collection in honour of the museum’s current Leonardo da Vinci exhibition.
The eponymously titled exhibition, which is on display at the museum till February marks 500 years since the artist’s death, with the Off-White collection able to buy straight from the Louvre’s gift shop. Adapting elements from two of da Vinci’s famous paintings, Saint Anne and The Virgin of the Rocks, Abloh gives Off-White logos and iconography some renaissance flare. This excellent collection of t-shirts and oversized hoodies comes as an unofficial continuation of the Abloh’s fascination with the artist, using the Mona Lisa in the brand’s SS18 collection and depicting the painting as an iPhone charger for the designer’s latest collaboration with IKEA. Who knows, give it ten years time, and our entire house could be laden with Off-White x da Vinchi goodies? We’re not complaining.
The Off-White x Musée du Louvre capsule collection is available online now and at the Louvre’s gift shop.
