Virgil Abloh launches Leonardo da Vinci capsule with the Louvre

Those planning to attend the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre museum in Paris - running until 24th February 2020 - have another reason to do so since Friday: They can not only admire the largest collection in the world of Da Vinci’s paintings, together with 22 drawings, but also check out Virgil Abloh’s Leonardo capsule collection in the gift shop.

The line of t-shirts and hoodies is a collaboration between Abloh’s luxury fashion label Off-White and the Louvre, in honour of the visionary artist’s 500th death anniversary. The pieces of the capsule collection combine sections of Da Vinci’s painting with the Off-White logo. Prices range from 355 US dollars (265 British pounds) to 640 US dollars (480 British pounds).

“I was fascinated with Da Vinci early on – I was in my senior year at Wisconsin, taking an art class. I was super interested not only by his artworks but also by the influence he had in many disciplines besides art: science, engineering, architecture… To me, he symbolizes everything the Renaissance was,” commented Virgil Abloh, founder and artistic director of Off-White, in a press release published by the Louvre on Friday.

The designer has certainly taken his share of inspiration from the Renaissance artist, using graphic images of his famous Mona Lisa for Off-White’s spring/summer 2018 collection on shirts and iPhone cases and on a lightbox for a houseware collection for Swedish furniture store chain Ikea. During Paris Fashion Week in January, Abloh presented one of his label’s collections beneath the Louvre.

Virgil Abloh newest collaboration celebrates Da Vinci’s work

For this capsule collection, two works in particular have been featured, Da Vinci’s Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and an Angel, known as The Virgin of the Rocks, and Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary, and the Infant Jesus Playing with a Lamb, known as Saint Anne, woven together with da Vinci’s iconic drawings, including his anatomical sketches of the male form. The images of the capsule collection were shot inside the Grande Galerie of the Louvre.

“The Louvre has always been a place of life, of inspiration for the creators of each era. We are thrilled to see how the palace and museum collections have inspired Virgil Abloh. Our collaboration with Off-White and this multitalented artist also gives us the opportunity to reach out to a new audience and encourage them to take interest in the Louvre,” said Adel Ziane, director of external relations, Musée du Louvre.

“I want to crash together these two worlds that are seemingly different: fashion and high art. It’s a crucial part of my overall body of work to prove that any place, no matter how exclusive it seems, is accessible to everyone. That you can be interested in expressing yourself through more than one practice and that creativity does not have to be tied to just one discipline. I think that Leonardo da Vinci was maybe the first artist to live by that principle, and I am trying to as well,” added Abloh.

The Leonardo capsule collection by Virgil Abloh will be available in the Louvre gift shop and online via Off-White.com and Farfetch.com, and in shops including Off-White Paris, Off-White Milan, the EM_PTY Gallery in Soho, New York City, and at Browns.

Photos: copyright Thibaut Grevet / Louvre