Virgil Abloh's Widow Steps Into New Role, 'I Have To Stay On This Train, Don’t Know Where It’s Going'

Virgil Abloh’s wife Shannon is stepping in to make sure that her late husband’s legacy withstands the test of time.

It has been a year since the beloved designer passed away from cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. Shannon has been flying under the radar and now she is sitting down with the New York Times, ready to talk about life after the passing of her best friend and husband.

"Even though we knew the challenge of what he was fighting, it went a lot faster than we thought it was going to," Shannon admits, realizing that she wasn’t even ready for the passing. "We never had the 'this is the legacy that I want you to work toward' discussion.”

However, the two have such a long history that “I knew every inch of him. I knew every inch of his brain." This is why she feels qualified to carry on the powerful career her husband began.

The mom of two who has been with Virgil since high school and acknowledges that she has spent most of her time behind the scenes. “It was just the way our relationship worked. We knew we wanted to build this close family, and we needed someone to be the stable partner. I was happy to do that.”

Now, she is focused on shaping the legacy. “It’s like this train that’s going 500 miles per hour, and I just thought: I have to stay on this train, because if I don’t, I don’t know where it’s going to go. That’s my place and my position,” she insists.

Also, for her children Lowe and Grey, she wants to set an example. “I think that it’s important that my kids are able to see in 20 years what their dad was able to do and that Mom really stepped up.”

Shannon felt that it was necessary for her to make sure that all the great things that her late husband had coming down the pipeline actually make it there and are everything he envisioned. She created Virgil Abloh Securities which houses her husband’s business.

The ventures that Virgil left in the works include, a partnership with Nike called Architecture.

London creative studio Alaska Alaska. Virgil also had a music festival at Art Basil in the works. That launches this week and will host several discussions, workshops, and exhibitions.

According to Dazed, VA securities will unveil the Nike Air Terra Forma at Art Basel as well.

Shannon also reveals that Virgil had hundreds of unreleased styles yet to surface,  a project that will last 50 years claims Howard Feller, Shannon’s business partner.

Shannon also shared that by next summer she and some of Virgil’s collaborators will meet to form some ideas to help young people realize that they can actually be anything and not just the categories that society wants to put them in.

Virgil wanted to be more than just a role model for “kids that didn’t know they could be an architect or the designer of Vuitton instead of a basketball player or a football player,” but also passionate about making it happen.

“I know what he would want,” says Shannon. “And I feel just as strongly as he did about it.”