HELLO CHINA: Virgil Abloh, the founder of Off-White and Louis Vuitton men’s wear artistic director, opened an account Thursday on China’s popular social commerce platform Xiaohongshu, or Red to the Western audience.
He posted a short video, which soon gained more than 2,000 likes, introducing himself to China and said: “This is where I’m gonna drop exclusive information and just stay in touch…Let me know what lives are interesting to you. I’ll just be reporting live all the time on my phone, just capturing what I see and what inspires me.”
Abloh also teased that the event will reveal a special collaboration, titled “Offkat,” with graffiti artist Katsu in the format of a show in Beijing on Friday. The collection will include men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, available for purchase immediately after the event.
In less than 24 hours, Abloh’s account has attracted over 8,100 followers. This marks his first presence on any Chinese social media platforms.
It’s not a surprise that Abloh chose to debut on Xiaohongshu. Louis Vuitton was one of the first luxury brands to embrace the platform and it now has around a quarter-million followers. The brand publishes a mix of original content with local celebrities wearing new season items, and syndicates some content from its Instagram account.
Off-White does not have an account on the platform, but the brand updates regularly on Weibo and WeChat and runs an online store based on the WeChat Miniprogam infrastructure.
