BoF Honors Virgil Abloh With Global VOICES Award

In October, BoF founder and chief executive Imran Amed wrote to Virgil Abloh offering the designer the Global VOICES Award.

Every year, the award honors the members Fashion Business a community that has used their position in fashion to have influence in the wider world.

Abloh, a designer who breaks boundaries to become one of the most influential fashion creatives, is more than qualified. The award is meant to recognize “relentless work that champions designer talent, raises voices for the marginalized and creates new pathways to fashion,” Amed wrote in his letter.

But this week Abloh was supposed to be in Miami for the opening of a new menswear store and a fashion show for Louis Vuitton, where he serves as the men’s artistic director. Organizing an award has almost proved impossible so the plan is not to issue an award this year and honor Abloh in 2022.

Last week, the designer died after a personal battle with cancer. And on the final night of VOICES 2021, BoF awarded Abloh the Global VOICES Award posthumously along with a donation to his Post-Modern Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to talented students of black or African descent with fashion ambitions.

“Someone told me that in Ghanaian tradition you celebrate life,” Amed said at a dinner to mark the close of VOICES 2021. “So tonight we celebrate Virgil, even though he is not here with us.”

The event marks the close of the BoF’s annual meeting of big minds, which brings together industry leaders, activists and experts from around the world for a busy schedule of thought-provoking talks and discussions. This year’s VOICES takes place against a backdrop of global crises, from Covid-19 to the climate emergency, but the sessions are optimistic and forward-looking, examining everything from the metaverse to mushroom-based skins to gender-free fashion. Speakers included designers such as Dame Vivienne Westwood, Christian Louboutin and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as biologist Merlin Sheldrake and author Jay Shetty.

Discussions continued into the evening when guests including Jordan Dunn, David Gandy, Harris Reed and Sonam Kapoor sat down for a dinner from chef Jackson Boxer before a performance by singer Ama Lou.

VOICES 2021 made possible in part through our partners McKinsey & Company, Shopify, Clearco, Klarna, Brandlive, flannel, Snap, Getty Images, Soho’s house and Invisible Collection.