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After sitting on the sidelines last season, plans for a September presentation in New York shelved, Off-White is mounting a return to the runway with a co-ed show at Paris Fashion Week set for February 29.
Under the banner “Black by Popular Demand,” the show will be Off-White’s third outing by Ibrahim Kamara, who took the luxury streetwear label’s creative reins as art and image director in April 2022.
The event will be “fun and playful,” said CEO Cristiano Fagnani over email. “Youth comes first, with our connection to culture and style.”
The move comes at a challenging time for the once white-hot label, which has struggled to find its footing after the loss of its magnetic late founder Virgil Abloh in November 2021 was compounded by challenging market conditions.
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In recent seasons, sales have been hit by growing consumer fatigue with luxury streetwear and a cost of living crisis that has dampened spending among younger, aspirational luxury consumers in the US, a key market for the brand. Revenue at Off-White operator New Guards Group, where the label is a critical sales generator, slumped more than 40 percent in the three months ending 30 June 2023.
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The Plan for Off-White After Virgil Abloh
Executives at New Guards Group and LVMH reveal exclusively to BoF the ‘endless’ pipeline Abloh left behind and their plans to harness his legacy to build a multi-billion-dollar brand.
