Virgil Abloh’s Multidisciplinary Legacy Comes to Life in Paris
From September 30 to October 10, 2025, the Grand Palais in Paris is set to stage Virgil Abloh: The Codes, the first major European exhibition devoted to the late designer’s work. Organized by the Virgil Abloh Archive™ in partnership with Nike, the show surveys nearly two decades of Abloh’s career by drawing from his 20,000-object personal archive. It highlights how his creative ‘codes,’ the recurring principles that guided his approach, connect disciplines as different as fashion, footwear, architecture, music, and advertising.
One part of the exhibition reactivates the Paris concept store colette, long a central platform for Abloh’s early work. Co-founded by Sarah Andelman, the iconic store is recreated inside the Grand Palais as a hybrid installation and functioning shop, where limited-edition objects shaped in partnership with Abloh will be available, including a reissue of his collaboration with Braun and a French-language edition of his book Abloh-isms.
Virgil Abloh: The Codes is devoted to the late designer’s work | image by Tyrone Lebon
the grand palais exhibition expands the archive
Curated by Chloe and Mahfuz Sultan, Virgil Abloh: The Codes expands on an earlier edition presented in 2022, this time with a broader view of Abloh’s practice. Alongside well-known projects, the show presents prototypes, sketches, and items from his own collections and library. The archive seeks to make Abloh’s methods available for study and reuse, reflecting his belief in openness and collective learning by focusing on process as much as on outcomes.
The project is supported by the Virgil Abloh Foundation and accompanied by a series of public programs, from workshops and dialogues to performances and screenings. For the late designer’s wife, Shannon Abloh, who leads the archive and foundation, the exhibition is both a celebration and a teaching tool, a way of ensuring that Virgil Abloh’s ideas remain accessible to future generations.
the show surveys nearly two decades of Abloh’s career | image by Julien Cedolin courtesy of Galerie kreo
drawing from the designer’s 20,000-object personal archive | image by Bogdan Chilldays Plakov
image by Tyrone Lebon
