Robin Givhan: "Make It Ours"

Virgil Abloh’s iconic rise to the top of the fashion industry embodied a groundbreaking transformation of the relationship between who we are and what we wear.

Abloh’s appointment as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton in 2018 shocked the fashion inudstry, as he became the first Black designer to serve as artistic director in the brand’s 164-year history. But as Pulitzer Prize–winning culture critic Robin Givhan reveals, Abloh’s story encompasses so much more than his own journey.

Using Abloh’s surprising path to the top of the luxury establishment, Givhan unfolds the larger story of how the cloistered, exclusive fashion world faced a revolution from below in the form of streetwear and designers unafraid to storm the gates—how their notions of what was luxury simultaneously anticipated and upended consumer preferences, and how a simple T-shirt held as much cultural power as a haute couture gown. As Givhan relays, Abloh rose during a time of existential angst for a fashion inudstry trying to make sense of its responsibilities to a diverse audience and the challenges of selling status to a generation of consumers who fetishized sneakers and prioritized comfort. How that moment came to be—how someone like Abloh, who had no formal training in patternmaking or tailoring, could come to symbolize and embody the industry’s way forward—is the story at the heart of this book.

Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh’s family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh’s mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man’s rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century’s worth of ideas about luxury and taste.

About the Author:

Robin Givhan is Washington Post’s senior critic-at-large, writing about politics, race, and the arts. Previously, she covered the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is the Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. In addition to the Post, where she has also covered Michelle Obama, Givhan has worked at Newsweek, Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press.

About the Moderator:

D. Watkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, Black Boy Smile, and other books. His book We Speak for Ourselves was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection. Some of Watkins’ awards include the James Beard Media Award, Gordon Park Fellowship, Pratt Library Hackerman Writer Fellowship, Vernon Jarrett “Medal of Journalistic Excellence, Society of Professional Journalists “Dateline Award for Commentary,” Gold Signal Award, Johns Hopkins University “Society of Scholars,” Johns Hopkins University “Distinguished Alumnus Award,” City Lit “Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts,” and the Maryland Library Association’s “William Wilson Maryland Author Award.

Watkins is Editor-at-Large for Salon. Additionally, he is a writer on the HBO mini-series We Own This City and host of the show’s companion podcast. He was also featured in the HBO documentary The Slow Hustle. His work has been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications. Watkins is a professor at the University of Baltimore, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. He also holds a Master of Education degree from Johns Hopkins University.

About the Program:

• Doors will open to registered attendees at 6 pm.
• A local bookseller will be on-site and have books available for purchase.
• Free parking vouchers are available to program attendees who park at the Franklin Street Garage (15 W. Franklin Street) after 4pm. Ask Pratt event staff for your parking voucher prior to or after the program.
• There is no registration required for virtual attendance, simply visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.

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