In 2016, sportswear manufacturer Nike and fashion designer Virgil
Abloh joined forces to create a sneaker collection celebrating 10
of the Oregon-based company's most iconic shoes. With their project
The Ten-which reimagined icons like Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air
Force 1, and Air Presto, among others-they reinvigorated sneaker
culture. Virgil Abloh's designs offer deep insights into
engineering ingenuity and burst with cultural cachet. Drawing on
the genius of the original shoe using lettering, ironic labels,
collage, and sculpting techniques, Abloh played with language and
sculptural elements to construct new meaning. Inspired by the wit
of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he
analyzed what makes each shoe iconic and deconstructed it into an
artistic assemblage, making each shoe into a piece of industrial
design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once. ICONS
traces Abloh's investigative, creative process through
documentation of the prototypes, original text messages from Abloh
to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives. We find
Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or
thread, Abloh's typical text fragments in quotation marks on Air
Force 1, and All Stars cut into pieces. We take a look behind the
scenes and witness Abloh's DIY approach, which gave each model in
the Off-WhiteTM c/o Nike collection its own unique touch. His
deconstructive vocabulary is reflected in the Swiss binding, which
showcases an open spine and discloses the production of the book.
The book documents Abloh's cooperative way of working and reaffirms
the power of print. For its design Nike and Abloh partnered with
the acclaimed London-based design studio Zak Group. Together they
conceived a two-part compendium, equal parts catalog and conceptual
toolbox. The first part of the book presents a visual culture of
sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people,
places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the
project grew. Texts by Nike's Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy
Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh
himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design
history. A foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places the project within
the historical continuum of Nike collaborators.
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