“It’s a birthday party! Happy birthday, V,” Tremaine Emory said, cradling a mic behind the DJ booth at L’Avenue late on Tuesday at Paris Fashion Week. It was still technically Virgil Abloh’s birthday for a few more minutes, but since Travis Scott had already belted out a viral happy birthday song for him earlier in the day, Emory had a better idea: “Let’s dance our asses off for him tonight.”
The crowd needed no encouragement. That morning, Virgil Abloh: The Codes, the first major European retrospective of the tireless creative director’s work, opened at the Grand Palais. The show features over 1,000 pieces from the Virgil Abloh Archive (VAA), and offers a clear testament to the continued influence and relevance of Abloh’s ideas. Another sign that Abloh’s legacy is stronger than ever was the lengthy queue of young, diverse Parisians that snaked around the museum entrance all day.
It was only right to celebrate the way Abloh surely would have: with a party at L’Avenue. Hosted by Will Welch and Shannon Abloh, the bash took over the Avenue Montaigne boîte where Virgil could often be found taking meetings by day and DJing by night during Paris Fashion Week. Sponsored by GQ, VAA, and Levi’s, the party fell on the day Abloh would have turned 45. The room quickly filled up with members of the designer’s community, many of whom had flown in from around the world to be at the opening—and to get together for a moment of catharsis and remembrance.
Throughout the night, Abloh’s globe-trotting friends remarked that it was the first time since his passing that so many of them had been in the same room. At one point, it felt like half the front row from a Virgil-era Louis Vuitton show was in and around the dance floor, with Travis Scott trampolining next to the DJ booth as the all-star lineup of Benji B, Pedro Cavaliere, and Venus X started spinning back to back to back. Across the room at L’Ave, a supermodel crew of Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and Cara Delevingne took selfies. Ice Spice climbed on top of a banquette. Zack Bia caught up with Cynthia Lu. Shawn Stüssy held it down just off the dance floor. And on the dance floor, Alton Mason showed everyone in the vicinity why he was Abloh’s favorite back-flipping runway muse.
Everywhere you turned there was an artist, stylist, musician, photographer, model, or editor who had been swept up by Abloh’s tornado of energy. Abloh was the force that brought so many of these people together in the first place, by day and (especially) by night. He was fashion’s ultimate connector in part because he was so good at getting people outside. In his time he defined the contemporary Paris Fashion Week party scene.
