Key details
Date
- 7 November 2022
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 1 minute
The Royal College of Art has announced the launch of the RCA Virgil Abloh Scholarship. A full tuition fee scholarship, including maintenance support, totalling £35,000 will be offered to an extraordinarily talented, but financially restricted, Black British student on any programme in the School of Design from the next academic year.
Key details
Date
- 7 November 2022
Author
- RCA
Read time
- 1 minute
The selected Virgil Abloh scholar will study without financial constraints to push the boundaries of their practice, enabling them to fulfil their creative potential. This initiative aims to help break down barriers to education and support the next generation of visionary designers and innovators.
Alongside the educational funding, the student will benefit from industry experience and networking opportunities, and will be supported by British fashion designer Samuel Ross and fellow creative industries partners throughout their studies.
Virgil Abloh, who passed away in 2021, was an American fashion designer, artist, architect, engineer, creative director, DJ and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection, the first African American to hold this position. He is also the Founder and CEO of Milan-based fashion house Off-White, and Alaska Alaska, his London studio staffed by young, multi-disciplinary creators, handpicked by Virgil himself.
Having joined as an Honorary Visiting Professor in 2020, Virgil held a close relationship with the RCA. He embodied the RCA’s spirit of collaboration and ingenuity, and hoped to enable students from across the College to benefit from his wealth of experience as a leading figure in international fashion and design. In the short time he was associated with the College, he made a significant impact on the RCA community. This scholarship aims to recognise Virgil’s support for education, his career-long ethos of using his practice to create social change and his position as a renowned champion for equality of opportunity across the creative industries.
The annual scholarship will apply to all areas of the RCA School of Design postgraduate study including Fashion, Textiles, Design Products, Service Design and Intelligent Mobility among other innovative courses. The RCA School of Design engages with design on multiple levels, from the highly conceptual to the deeply practical, with a strong culture of innovation, experimentation and debate.
The Virgil Abloh Scholarship has been established with the support of Shannon Abloh, the late designer's wife, and the team at the Fashion Scholarship Fund in the USA, thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor via RCA USA.