Born in Rockford, Illinois, in 1980, Virgil Abloh is an artist, architect, engineer, creative director, and designer. After earning a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he completed a master's degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. It was there that he learned not only about design principles but also about the concept of collaborative working. Virgil Abloh's brand Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™ was started in 2012 as an artwork titled PYREX VISION. In 2013, the brand premiered a seasonal men's and women's fashion label and moved into the production of furniture. Abloh has also curated exhibitions of his work, and in 2019 will have a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. In 2018, Abloh was named artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection.