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Prior to his untimely death in 2021 at the age of 41, Virgil Abloh was frequently referred to as the most influential fashion designer of his generation. Not exactly the most skilled—not by a long shot. Even during his tenure at Louis Vuitton, where he set a precedent as the first African American to direct the label's menswear in 2018, he favored T-shirt designs over tailoring. But as a pop-culture-obsessed versatile artist who engaged with fashion with a teenager's enthusiasm, his democratic approach to streetwear worked to make accessible the elite world of fashion to aspiring creatives like him who had long been shut out, whether he was putting his stamp on Ikea rugs or designer accessories.

Multidisciplinary artist … image of Virgil Abloh.

The magnitude of his impact on design cannot measured in material objects, but Abloh's archive show, the inaugural showcase focused exclusively to the deceased fashion designer's extensive 20,000-item archive, demonstrates that he was as much a avid gatherer of objects—the eponymous codes—as he was a designer of them.

Curated by Abloh's partners Chloe and Mahfuz Sultan along with his widow, Shannon, this two-storey exhibition uses his personal effects to illustrate his journey from the son of African-born family in Illinois to creative, visual artist, DJ, and finally one of the biggest designers in the world.

The setup is like a thrift store. Large piles of folded Off-White T-shirts and athletic shoe designs sit alongside art tools, scissors, and teenage laptops. A pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s have been turned inside out, while one of his designer bags imprinted with the word “sculpture” (speech marks were one of his trademark elements) rests solitarily on a pedestal.

The more immersive exhibits include his workspace at Louis Vuitton (he famously called his phone as his desk) and a full-size DJ booth; proof of his cultural reach, maturing in Illinois in the millennial era, his DJ name back then was Flat White.

The guidance is minimal, and while some of the more enigmatic inclusions—various USB sticks and music compilations in display cases—will only resonate to his loyal audience, it is a intriguing insight into the creative psyche of a digital native growing up in a market-driven era before TikTok.

Overwhelming … some of the objects on display at Virgil Abloh: The Codes.

At times it can feel overwhelming, but the systematic layout is also how Abloh worked. He would document his interviews with journalists on recordings which he kept in order to revisit and analyze as his work evolved. The tapes are likely among the remaining objects still in holding which—based on the response and queues outside—will almost certainly be exhibited in later installations.

Abloh's tenure at Louis Vuitton was highly acclaimed but it was his collaborations with global brands which surpassed the attraction of his fashion design, approaching each piece—a Rimowa suitcase, a athletic shoe, the previously mentioned Evian bottles—as if he was referencing a track. This stemmed from his “3% theory”—the concept that you could develop a original piece by changing an existing by just 3%.

Launching for just 10 days during Paris fashion week at the Grand Palais—exclusive access was a classic Virgil strategy—the timed queues outside on its first day indicate it wasn't simply the biggest attraction in town, but that it was unthinkable to think that Abloh's impact would simply vanish from fashion's slipstream after his death.