Make It Ours

BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Elle From Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic Robin Givhan comes a groundbreaking chronicle of the legacy of Virgil Abloh, whose iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry transformed our ideas about the connection between who we are and what we wear 'Captivating and beautifully written' Tom Ford 'Thoughtful, intelligent, honest and masterfully crafted' Marc Jacobs 'A thrilling journey into the mind of a genius.' Edward Enninful 'A must-read' Elaine Welteroth ---------- In the spring of 2018, Louis Vuitton sent shockwaves around the fashion industry. They appointed Virgil Abloh, a designer with no formal training, to be the head of menswear and the first Black artistic director in the brand's 164-year history - a cultural moment that would upend a century's worth of ideas about luxury and taste. Using one man's remarkable path to the top of the luxury establishment, Make It Ours uncovers the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below, dressed in puffer jackets and sneakers. From the designers emboldened to storm the gates, to the simple T-shirt coming to hold as much cultural power as an haute couture gown, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Robin Givhan chronicles how Abloh propelled an entire industry forward. With unparalleled access to Abloh's family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries like Ozwald Boateng and Abloh's mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury.

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. In addition to the Post, Givhan has worked at Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press. During her most recent tenure at The Post, in addition to fashion, Givhan covered Michelle Obama during the first year of the administration