Virgil Aboloh became recognised while working as Kanye West’s creative director – and later made history as the first African-American to lead Louis Vuitton. But his influence has not been limited to those in the celebrity world.

Virgil Abloh, who has died aged 41, will be remembered as one of the most popular and influential fashion designers of his era. As both the founder of Off-White and the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton, Abloh’s ascent from show-crashing fashion tourist in 2009 to the very apex of the global luxury industry at the time of his passing is arguably the defining fashion story of the 2010s. For as both an African American and a creative whose work emerged from the rag-tag genre of streetwear – a genre whose definition he regularly contested – Abloh was the seminal boundary breaker in a notoriously bordered business.