Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh

by Robin Givhan

“An illuminating . . . biography and cultural history” (The New York Times) of Virgil Abloh’s iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry, which embodied a groundbreaking transformation of the relationship between who we are and what we wear.

“[Robin Givhan] captures that shift with the kind of clarity and nuance that honors the late designers’ many layers. There’s never been a book like this.”—Essence

A WASHINGTON POST AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Virgil Abloh’s appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018 shocked the fashion industry, as he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand’s 164-year history. But as Pulitzer Prize–winning culture critic Robin Givhan reveals, Abloh’s story encompasses so much more than his own journey.

Using Abloh’s surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates—how their notions of what was luxury simultaneously anticipated and upended consumer preferences, and how a simple T-shirt held as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. As Givhan relays, Abloh rose during a time of existential angst for a fashion industry trying to make sense of its responsibilities to a diverse audience and the challenges of selling status to a generation of consumers who fetishized sneakers and prioritized comfort. The story of how that moment came to be, and how someone like Abloh—who had no formal training in pattern-making or tailoring—could come to symbolize and embody the industry’s way forward, is the story at the heart of this book.

Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh’s family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh’s mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man’s rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century’s worth of ideas about luxury and taste.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Biography Memoir

335 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 24, 2025

About the author

ROBIN GIVHAN is Washington Post's senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race, and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is the Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. In addition to the Post, where she has also covered Michelle Obama, Givhan has worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press.

Reviews

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive examination of the history and context that made a fashion designer like Abloh possible. It follows every possible rabbit trail, almost like a pop-up video, zooming in on almost everyone and anything mentioned before zooming back out to show how this fit into Abloh's career and ascent. We delve into the history of Rockford, IL (his hometown), hip-hop, luxury fashion, IIT, Nike/Adidas, and so much more. While I would still love to read the biography of Abloh I thought I was going to get, this proved to be a fascinating account.


Content notes: Abloh died from cardiac angiosarcoma at 41 year old, death by overdose (people in fashion industry), industry substance abuse, Michael Jackson pedophilia allegations, Kobe Bryant sexual assault allegations, AIDS epidemic, COVID, racism, segregation, racial profiling, racial violence, Black people killed by police (including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), gun violence cases, industry fatphobia, parents are Ghanaian immigrants, gender essentialist language, ableist language, hyperbolic language around addiction, Harry Potter reference

[Nancy Lempesis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy informational text, this is a good biography for you. It reads almost like a text book. This wasn’t a DNF for me, but it was a STA (switched to audible).

Warning: if you go with the audible version, do not listen while driving. Only listen while you’re doing something active or you might get lulled to sleep.

If I was only given one sentence to describe the book it would be: It tells and doesn’t show.

4 stars for the educational level of writing. Succinct and covers so much ground, with not a coating of sugar within the pages. I learned about the luxury fashion industry and a brilliant young man I had never heard of, despite his 6M person following on social media.

And take my review with a grain of salt - I dig beautiful prose, long winded descriptions of geography that make a place feel like an emotion, similes and metaphors that burst and break your heart wide open, character development that have me missing them when I read the last page and the occasional post-apocalypse adventure thrill.

[Alissa Winslow]

Wow. I love fashion, pop culture and Chicago. ❤️

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"His story is fashion's next chapter."

Chronicling the short but sparkling career of Virgil Abloh, who brought iconoclastic style to luxury fashion until his death at 41, MAKE IT OURS vividly shows how Abloh's work marked a turning point in how streetwear and hip-hop culture joined hands with the luxury world. As a wholly unfashionable man with no desire to buy $100 t-shirts, I had zero knowledge of Abloh's work, but found myself unexpectedly compelled by the energy and spiritedness that Givhan's prose captures, with her descriptions conveying just why his artistry captured the fashion world.

Givhan cleverly draws from Abloh's statement that everything he did was for his seventeen-year-old self to begin MAKE IT OURS with a survey of the culture that Abloh inhabited at age seventeen, developing this context throughout the book into an examination of how Abloh's designs sparked cultural conversations and controversies surrounding issues like Black Lives Matter or copyright. Despite the book's hagiographical tone, these discussions not only offer a sense of critical balance, but locate Abloh's artistry within vaster cultural shifts that affirm his importance as a designer.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a hagiography or tribute, it's a book that deeply examines the ways in which a person becomes his complete and complex self as early as a teenager (among my favorite kind of stories) and then, through just the right and unreplicable steps of learning/absorbing and chance encounters/awakenings, makes a statement, has an impact, imparts a vision.

That this all occurs in the world of fashion could possibly be a challenge for readers who are accustomed to these kinds of ascension stories involving sports, or politics, or mainstream art (movies), but there can be no better guide through it than Robin Givhan, my friend and colleague for many years, herself an unmatched force.

Robin brings her skeptical, expert eye to Virgil Abloh and the many layers of context that made him, and how the world responded to him. I learned so much here about the century we live in -- yes, from a book about the rise and untimely death of a fashion designer!

[Justin Dunnavant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much praise to Robin Givhan for bringing Virgil's story to print. It's not the biography that I wanted but it is a biography that is needed. Givhan does a thorough job of outlining the Virgil's significance and impact on the fashion industry well beyond his years. She talks about the doors that he held open and the barriers he broke. She also addresses his impact on bringing streetwear into high fashion. This book really tells the story of blacks in fashion through Virgil's life.

I, however, would have preferred a story of Virgil that focused on Virgil, the skater, a mover of culture, and an intellocator with young icons like Tyshawn jones or Tremaine Emory. While he moved the needle in high fashion, it was the way in which he inspired, built up, and collaborated with young designers, skaters, and artists that continue to make him an inspiration today.

[Karl I · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of Hip Hop, Streetwear, and most of the life of Kanye West, Virgil Abloh was always a cultural icon creating in all of these areas of interests. Givhan does a great job digging into not only Ablohs roots but the roots of the great themes of the biography, social justice, fashion culture, but most importantly the community. Getting a deep dive in Virgil’s story brought me back to my younger days surfing through the internet and creating my own taste in clothing and music and it was cool to see how intertwined it all was with everyone in the community built by the “bloghouse era”. Being inept in the world of high fashion, this book taught me a lot about the luxury world, and really cemented how big the walls and barriers were for Abloh. Amazing read, a true cultural icon. “Virgil Was Here”

[Brian McGough · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I’m interested in creative entrepreneurs, but honestly, I feel like we don’t even really **meet** Virgil in this biography. The author spends a lot of time on the history and context around Virgil (which is interesting in its own right, and I learned a lot), but in doing so, she misses the story of Virgil the man and visionary. I’m left wondering: What really motivated his 17 year old self? How and why did he stay true to that vision, especially as his world changed? How hard did he have to work to get out from under Kanye’s shadow and personality to establish his own name? What did his family think of the success? Did his parents feel this was the kind of trajectory worthy of their sacrifices as Ghanaian immigrants? You don’t get to the heart of any of this.

[Caleb Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, although a bit dry in parts.

The “tilling the soil” chapter in particular, while an interesting deep dive into the history of the fashion industry’s relationship with POC, felt like it went on too long and provided far more context than was necessary. Almost gave up here but luckily the following chapters beautifully documented Virgil’s rise to the top and kept me hooked pretty well throughout.

Would recommend to anyone who was tapped in with the fashion/hip hop culture scene of the 2010’s. Also this makes that leaked Kanye song “Virgil Let Me Down” look worse but does help you actually understand a little bit better how Mr West arrived at that conclusion even if it is 500 nautical miles off base.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good just a couple of notes

there was no mention of hiroshi fujiwaras collaboration with lv which precedes and gives more context to the sup lv collab. not a big deal but surprised it wasnt mentioned.

there was also a nice opportunity for the been trill collective to be interviewed for the epilogue but maybe thats just what the inner 17 year old in me wanted

[Audrey Trainor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing in this book. It is provocative and subtle at the same time. I am an outsider to the subject in many ways, a white 50 something woman who is not in the fashion industry but I was still captivated by all the themes Givhan unearthed.... about fashion, 3% rules of reproduction, Black luxury and consumerism, racism in fashion and at large, mortality and legacy.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

i can’t imagine writing a book about Virgil so kudos to Robin who wrote the book in a sea of history, context, politics and race. What i wanted was more soul and insight into the kid that was Virgil. would his 17 year old self read this book?? don’t think so

[Steazy Peasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long live Virgil, I wasn’t a huge fan of his time at Vuitton, but I was a huge fan of his time on this planet! Really a different kind of genius with a work ethic I don’t think most people will ever achieve.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid account of what is means to lead with influence and have an impact that continues to compound. Abloh’s genius was never loud but strong and confident, his talent transcended and transformed. Learning about his architectural training and creative process was such a joy.

[Ruthie R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very interesting style of biography! glad my dad told me to read it, i enjoyed it

[Louis De Pitera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

[Stephanie Zahrbock]

Vibe Check rec 8/2025

[Jay Chauhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed and skipped portions.
Meh

[Chelsea Stinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virgil was the least interesting part of this book. I am however, very excited to read another book by this author.

[molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

brilliant explanation into aboah’s legacy though often overly rambling for my taste

[Kelly Roberson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fawning, flat, one dimensional portrait.

[Natalie Sopic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing, factual and thoughtful book about the professional and human life of artist and change maker, Virgil Abloh. Robin Givhan is an excellent storyteller, journalist and descriptor of such a prolific, talented and determined man. A must read for those interested in culture, fashion and history.

[Pamela Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been such a huge fan of Abloh’s. An amazing talent gone too soon into his fashion designer career. It was nice to read about his beginnings and the way he never gave up on his dreams. A very inspiring, motivating thing to read about and this book does a good job of that as well a mini history lesson of the Chicago scene that I was quite unfamiliar with.