We’re all well aware of Ikea’s collaboration with serial collaborator, Off-White™ founder and now menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton, Virgil Abloh, but what we’ve seen so far since the announcement was made last June are only glimpses of Ikea’s signature FRAKTA bag in beige and rugs that says “Keep Off” and “Blue”. No other info was given about the millennial targeted home and living collection apart from the release in 2018.
Soon that’s all about to change as Ikea Today announced a livestream broadcast with Virgil on April 30th at 5.30PM EST (April 31st, 5.30AM Malaysia time) that will unveil the creative process behind the collaboration.
“Ikea wants to explore the first home and how to make it inexpensive and fashionable,”
– Henrik Most
(creative leader at Ikea Range and Supply)
Virgil’s vision was to create furniture pieces for the dorms and halls of a millennial consumer which was clever, really, given the increasing millennials spending power in the market today.
“We’ve asked basic questions, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback. Dual functions are key, based on space and money. When we use the word millennial, I want to frame our thinking in solving each of these things,” said Virgil.
“Items are influenced by the artistic premise that, to add value in this millennial space it’s not only the object itself but it also has artistic value. If you make the right object it can be appreciated by both [as an object and contemporary art],” said Virgil.
A man that wears many hats, Virgil graduated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and later obtained his master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2006. He previously interned at Fendi with rapper Kanye West in 2009 and worked as the rapper’s fashion advisor and creative director for 14 years.
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