Fans of virgil’s off white brand no that his products are often labeled with large words in quotation marks. This became one of virgils staples in the fashion industry. It is said that he used no quotation marks in a mode of “Ironic detachment.”
In the fashion industry it is often important to designers to be the first to do something, but Virgil rejects this idea for a copy paste method more suited for the Internet age and its inhabitants. Obviously Virgil is not copying anybody verbatim but he is simply making the observation that people follow trends and like to be like each other. Virgil also uses the quotes to pose questions about his pieces. For example one of his more famous pieces is A bag that has the words sculpture In quotations across it. With this he’s calling into question of what the difference really is between a handbag and a piece of art. Virgil once explained to that “You can use typography and wording to completely change the perception of a thing without changing anything about it”. Original often uses subtle but still deliver it jabs to engage viewers, and encourage them to share his work until it goes viral. He uses a not so serious tone that places off-white above the rest of the conversation because to a casual observer it may not look like he’s taking anything very seriously. This goes along very well with his belief that street where was the next big thing of fashion. He said that streetwear is about doing it yourself and logos and irony and satire, but with off-white he wanted it to keep it chic and redefined an elevated above the rest. This irony of often comes across in these quotes that he uses. Another example would be a pair of boots he made that have for walking in quotations from the knee all the way down to the ankle. This goes along with his idea of satire being used because these were $2000 boots, that he is seeing are just for walking
