Culture

Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh Apologises After Being Dragged For $50 George Floyd Donation

"Virgil Abloh can put quotation marks on some clothing but can't put commas on a donation."

by Michelle Rennex  2 June 2020
virgil abloh donation memes

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For those who don’t know, Virgil Abloh is the CEO of luxury label Off-White and is the current artistic director for Louis Vuitton. Basically, this means he has a lot of money.

According to The Wealth Record, he has an estimated net worth of more than $4 million USD, to be exact.

So you can understand everyone’s surprise when Virgil decided to post a screenshot of his lowly $50 USD donation in response to the current events surrounding the murder of George Floyd.

Donating $50 to (F)empower’s Community Bond Fund to help “kids in the streets that need bail funds for George Floyd protests”, Virgil shared his contribution to his 5.4 million followers on Instagram.

The problem, however, is that this contribution came after Virgil Abloh criticised the looting happening during protests. Sharing footage of his friend and Round 2 founder Sean Wotherspoon’s looted stores in a now-deleted Instagram post, Virgil said “this disgusts me… we’re part of a culture together”.

“This is fucked up,” he continued. “You see the passion, blood, sweat and tears Sean puts in for our culture. This disgusts me… hang your head in shame.”

People quickly pointed out Virgil Abloh’s strange focus on replaceable material goods over justice for innocent lives lost, which is what the protests are about. To put it into perspective, after designer Marc Jacobs found out that his stores had also been looted, he took to Instagram to share that “property can be replaced, human lives cannot.”

Beyond Virgil’s focus on looting, the dollar amount he donated just really didn’t sit right with people. As a successful black designer, people just couldn’t fathom how he came up with $50 — especially when that actually isn’t enough to purchase anything from his store, Off-White.

The cheapest item currently on the Off-White online store are a pair of red socks that retail for $115 and are currently on sale for $58 — still more than what Virgil Abloh’s bail fund donation was. Some even noted that literal paper binder clips sell for $100, while a packet of marker pens will set you back $115.

Following the backlash, Virgil Abloh has since taken to social media to apologise for his words.

“I apologise that my comments yesterday appeared as if my main concerns are anything other than full solidarity with the movements against police violence, racism and inequality,” he wrote. “Yesterday I spoke out about how my stores and stores of friends were looted.”

“I apologise that it seemed like my concern for those stores outweighed my concern for our right to protest injustice and express our anger and rage in this moment,” Virgil continued. “Buildings are brick and mortar, and material things can be replaced. People can’t. Black lives matter and in this moment, those other things don’t.”

Then going on to explain his $50 donation, Virgil Abloh shared that he only posted that specific dollar amount as part of a social media chain. In his statement, Virgil claims that he has “donated $20,500 to bail funds and other causes related to this movement.”

But his apology didn’t mean much as the memes about his lowly $50 donation flex had already flooded social media — with some even going so far as to edit his Wikipedia profile to reflect his recent actions regarding Black Lives Matter.

Here are some of the best reactions to Virgil Abloh’s little social media misstep: