If culture is code, Paris just got the master key. On what would’ve been Virgil Abloh’s 45th birthday, the Grand Palais opened Virgil Abloh: The Codes — ten days, 20 years of output, 20,000 objects. Sketches, prototypes, garments, sneakers, sound snippets, even sticky notes marked “For Paris only.” The first major European exhibition devoted solely to the man behind Off‑White, The Ten, Louis Vuitton, and 21st-century creative crossover.
Curators Chloe and Mahfuz Sultan expanded the 2022 Miami show, layering new objects and collaborations. Walking through, you feel his pulse: his “codes” aren’t decoration, they’re methodology. Visitors linger over prototype Jordans, whispering, “He made shoes like building blocks,” while a designer traces a flute case made for André 3000 with a finger. Soundscapes remix his work, sketches reveal songs he listened to while designing, and little notes — crossed-out lines, arrows, reminders — show the mind behind the myth.
Nike’s imprint is everywhere, from The Ten to workshops revealing unfinished sketches. Travis Scott recalled late-night WhatsApp threads that gave birth to T-shirt designs — proof that Virgil’s “more than 24 hours in a day” ethos was real. Colette’s Rotonde Clemenceau pop-up resurrects drop culture as ritual: rare reissues, new designs, and the French edition of Abloh-isms, with notes like, “Virgil would have loved this corner.” Even a Chrome Hearts × Off-White traffic cone winks at high-low absurdity.
View this post on Instagram
This isn’t a shrine; it’s a living conversation. Objects, sound, and text loop together, showing Abloh’s work as a dialogue, a remix, and a community. Nike sums it up: “Sharing his personal collection, unfinished work, and magnum opuses honours Virgil’s deep belief in access and collaboration.”
Exit the Grand Palais at dusk, and the sun sparkles through the dappled light streets. Virgil decoded our visual world, turned everyday objects into architecture, collaboration into law, and sneakers into statements. Now it’s up to the next generation to recode it.