Off-White™ has unveiled its latest ad campaign and that’s cause for celebration, not just because we finally get to see the images that make it up, but because it coincides with IB Kamara’s debut as art director and image director for the brand founded by the late and ever-remembered Virgil Abloh.
Photographed by Rafael Pavarotti, the Fall/Winter 2022 campaign combines the brand’s women’s and men’s ready-to-wear collections, designed by Virgil, with the aesthetic vision of Ibrahim Kamara.
Just as the collections express a dialogue between past and future, cultural and subcultural to articulate and progress the present, the campaign images tether Off-White™’s heritage to its evolving brand vision. This vision is rooted in a new narrative where free thinking inspires a pioneering format for the future, where the age of imagination is the product of reality.
References to the legacy of Off-White™ appear implicitly, through the progressive expression, and explicitly, with the campaign shoot taking place in Chefchaouen, the blue city of Morocco. Electric blue, the campaign’s protagonist color, is an intrinsic code of the house and serves as a unifying concept for the label’s autumn/winter 2022 campaign, as Ibrahim Kamara is keenly interested in shades of textile blue that come from West Africa. The city of Chefchaouen was keyed as a deeply historic ancient city with a very surreal point of view and notoriety. Apparently, it began to paint itself blue as an omen to bring water to the area; it is about food, growth, survival and development. The initiative and ambition of the local culture to paint the built environment blue is profound. Broad brushstrokes of various shades of blue, ultramarine and indigo cool this exceptionally hot city.
The relationship between Abloh and Kamara was rooted in a deep bond based on mutual respect and shared values. Kamara’s current collaboration reflects Off-White™’s ongoing dedication to nourish a collective of creative minds that represent the best in their category and have a strong and personal connection with Abloh.
“Making a successful luxury brand in nine years is genius,” confirms Karmara. “It’s a feat that I admire and hope to continue building upon with a rich legacy. [Virgil] revolutionized streetwear and luxury that crosses generations and decades. He showed the world that the underrepresented, the underdogs and Black people, in particular, have brilliant minds and can push and compete equally in the establishment. He inspired hope and brought about change. Virgil Abloh was one of the freest-thinking black men of our time.”
The Fall/Winter 2022 collection worn by the models in the campaign is now available on off—white.com, at Off-White™ stores, and via select international retail partners.
Take a look at the images below:
