The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class electric show car was unveiled in December shortly after Virgil Abloh’s untimely death. Now, Off-White has released a luxurious capsule collection to match.
If you watched the 64th Grammy Awards on Sunday, you witnessed the Recording Academy memorialize Virgil Abloh as a “hip-hop fashion designer.”
But if you paid a millisecond of attention to Abloh’s life and works prior to his November passing from a private two-year battle with cardiac angiosarcoma, then you know the Recording Academy’s descriptor to be reductive.
Abloh’s boundless creativity lives on through the newly unveiled Project MAYBACH — a collaboration between Abloh and Mercedes-Benz Group Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener.
Designed by Abloh, Project MAYBACH includes a Mercedes-Maybach S-Class electric show car:
And a corresponding Off-White capsule collection:
“The limited edition collection has been developed to celebrate the Project MAYBACH electric show car, both designed by Virgil Abloh,” the official description reads on the Off-White website. “The collaboration includes vintage washed cotton t-shirts and half-brushed cotton fleece crewnecks and hoodies, as well as canvas baseball caps and racing gloves crafted in canvas, neoprene, and suede.”
Wagener additionally wrote on Instagram: “Our Mercedes-Maybach S-Class MAYBACH by Virgil Abloh exemplifies the symbiosis between innovative design and ultimate craftsmanship now available on the road – inspired by our visionary electric show car #ProjectMAYBACH.”
The futuristic, luxurious vehicle was first revealed in early December, days after Abloh’s passing, at the request of his family. The impromptu exhibit took place in Miami — just like his final Louis Vuitton runway show — at the Rubell Museum.
This isn’t the first example of Off-White carrying forward Abloh’s uniquely innovative vision, and it won’t be the last. The fashion brand founded by Abloh in 2012 held its first runway show since his passing at Paris Fashion Week and featured the final Off-White collection the late icon oversaw.
And on Friday, the highly coveted Off-White x Nike Blazer Low sneaker drops. It will be the first posthumous Abloh Nike release.
There has always been clamoring for Abloh creations, and that has been heightened to desperation now that the supply was cut tragically short. That demand is evidenced in “Off-White C/O Project MAYBACH” immediately selling out.
The collection ranges from a $530 tee and $815 hoodie to gloves so distinct that a retail price wasn’t even listed.
For a legacy like Abloh’s that’s proven to be authentically invaluable, that last detail is more than fitting.
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