Off-White is the latest fashion house to break into beauty with a line named Paperwork, conceived by its late creative director Virgil Abloh prior to his untimely passing last autumn.
True to his vision, Abloh described Paperwork as “another canvas, another surface for human expression,” and the result is both as playful and progressive as you’d imagine.
Positioned as genderless and ageless, the collection comprises , six Imprint face and body solid pigment crayons, a set of Template stencils, and six Color Matter nail polishes. The focus is on experiencing the products in a customisable way, encouraging endless creativity.
With one of the most jaw-dropping castings of the fall show season, which included a cadre of supermodels (Cindy, Naomi, Amber, Helena) and one G.O.A.T. (Serena Williams)—not to mention a commanding front row featuring a pregnant Rihanna—some of the finer points of Virgil Abloh’s last Off-White collection may have gone underappreciated. But eagle-eyed spectators at the show in Paris, or those watching the livestream on one of the TV monitors Off-White’s parent company, New Guards Group, installed in 100 storefronts in the French capital (a democratization effort across boutiques, barbershops, pharmacies, etc.) likely noticed the stenciled bar codes that makeup artist Cécile Paravina etched onto select cheekbones, or the neon-bright trompe l’oeil lip rings her team applied backstage. And that’s saying nothing of the face tattoos worn by Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, and Grace Naa Ayorkor Quaye. The delicate cursive scrawl on Jenner’s cheek simply read “Babe,” and—much like the little anecdotes in the show notes for each of Abloh’s 28, specially-designed high-fashion looks—the sticker has a backstory: It had a velour-like texture, was hand-cut at a local atelier, and its nod to industrial luxury is at the core of Off-White Paperwork, a new Abloh joint that debuted posthumously on the runway.
Paperwork evolves with the rest of Abloh’s brand—and without a licensing partner (New Guards Group has created a separate beauty business unit to keep its production internal)—it too will become a part of the outsized legacy Abloh has left behind.
Off-White Paperwork will be available on April 20, exclusively at Off—white.com and Farfetch.com.
