Registration now closed

Author Talk: Robin Givhan

Make it Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture w/ Virgil Abloh

Join us for an author talk featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Robin Givhan as she discusses her groundbreaking book MAKE IT OURS: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh.

Givhan will explore how Virgil Abloh—the son of Ghanaian immigrants and the first Black designer to serve as artistic director at Louis Vuitton—transformed the fashion industry and influenced global culture. Through Abloh's remarkable journey, Givhan examines the intersection of fashion, race, and cultural power, revealing how streetwear revolutionized our understanding of luxury and taste.

With rich storytelling featuring fascinating characters from groundbreaking Black designers to Abloh's mentor Kanye West, this event offers a compelling look at how one visionary's work continues to inspire designers and artists worldwide.

Register to attend and learn more about the author and book below.

About the Author

Robin Givhan is a renowned fashion and culture critic who spent 30 years at The Washington Post before departing the publication. During her tenure, she served as senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race, and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is the Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. In addition to the Post, where she also covered Michelle Obama, Givhan has worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press.

About the Moderator

Krissah Thompson is the former editor of WP Ventures, a start-up at The Washington Post focused on growing reach off-platform, relevance to new audiences and revenue by mastering riveting storytelling. She worked directly with the audio, video, newsletters teams and several reporting teams. She was previously a managing editor in the award-winning newsroom and the first Black woman to serve in the role. She began her career at The Post in 2001 and has held multiple titles including intern, Business reporter, covering presidential campaigns and writing about civil rights and race. Before becoming an editor in the Style section, she covered the first lady’s office, politics and culture. She has also overseen features coverage, climate, audio/podcasting, hiring, career development & diversity and inclusion in news. Krissah is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and College of Liberal Arts Plan II honors program. She also earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.

About the Book

Virgil Abloh’s iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry transformed our ideas about the relationship between who we are and what we wear. His appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018—the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand’s 164-year history—shocked the fashion industry.  

In MAKE IT OURS: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture and fashion critic Robin Givhan profiles Abloh’s legendary work and impact, revealing how the son of Ghanaian immigrants was able to infiltrate all aspects of our culture and inspire millions.  Not only a remarkable biography of his singular creative force, the book is a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury.  

Using Abloh’s surprising path to the top of the fashion world, Givhan tells a larger story about how the insular and exclusive industry faced a transformation from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates. Their notions of what luxury was and could be anticipated and upended consumer preferences, proving a simple T-shirt could hold as much cultural power as an haute couture gown. Abloh gained prominence at a time when the fashion industry was grappling with its role in addressing a diverse audience and facing the difficulty of marketing status to a generation more focused on collecting sneakers and valuing comfort over traditional luxury. How that moment came to be, and how someone like Abloh—who had no formal training in pattern making or tailoring—could come to symbolize and embody the industry’s way, is the story at the heart of this book. 

With access to Abloh’s family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from groundbreaking Black designers like Ozwald Boateng, to Abloh’s mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan tells a captivating, great American story of how a young man’s rise amid this cultural moment would upend a century’s worth of ideas about luxury and taste. 

When he died in 2021, Louis Vuitton famously honored Abloh in his final show with a drone writing in the Miami sky, “Virgil was here”— and this holds true, as his legacy continues to be an influence to young designers and artists everywhere. I hope you'll consider covering this insightful look at his life by esteemed journalist Givhan—an inspiring, in-depth meditation on his lasting impact on both fashion and culture at large. 

Upcoming events