PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 21: Stylist Virgil Abloh standing between his wife Shannon Abloh (R) and his sister pose after the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 21, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images)
<p><strong>Virgil Abloh</strong> might be a common household name, but his widow <strong>Shannon</strong> isn&#8217;t. That&#8217;s because she remained in the shadows as her husband wowed the world with his creative mind. They didn&#8217;t intend to keep the Abloh <a href="https://dev.theshaderoom.com/angelina-jolie-claims-brad-pitt-choked-their-child-abused-another-in-private-plane-fight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">home life private</a>, but it worked for them.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;It was never a thing that we discussed. It was just the way our relationship worked,&#8221; Shannon said. Later adding, &#8220;We knew we wanted to build this close family, and we needed someone to be the stable partner. I was happy to do that.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Then, <a href="https://dev.theshaderoom.com/virgil-abloh-passes-away-following-battle-with-rare-form-of-cancer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virgil passed in November 2021</a> from a rare heart cancer called cardiac angiosarcoma. Shannon&#8217;s interview with <em>The New York Times, </em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/style/shannon-abloh-virgil-abloh.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published Tuesday</a>, is the first time we hear from the woman who says she knew <em>&#8220;every inch&#8221;</em> of Virgil and his mind.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Shannon And Virgil&#8217;s Love Story </strong></h3>
<p>They met as teenagers at a high school soccer game in Rockford, Illinois. She was 17 and in a relationship; he was 18 and smitten. Within a week of meeting Shannon, Virgil made his move. He placed two dozen roses on Shannon&#8217;s car and a love note with reasons why she should dump her boyfriend.</p>
<p>And the bold move worked. Virgil and Shannon dated through college and the early years of adulthood. She says she was with Virgil when he <em>&#8220;drove a Honda and wore JNCO jeans and a Ralph Lauren polo shirt,&#8221; </em>per <em>NYT. </em></p>
<p>He first proposed at O&#8217;Hare airport. At first, she thought he had fallen on the ground. In the years since tying the knot, they welcomed two children, nine-year-old Lowe and six-year-old Grey. About three months before he died, Virgil re-proposed to Shannon at a joint birthday party.</p>
<p>After his death, Shannon tattooed her left wrist with a quote from a love letter Virgil wrote in 2021. The tattoo says, <em>&#8220;like a ton of bricks,&#8221;</em> in Virgil&#8217;s handwriting&#8211;a phrase the designer used in I-love-yous to his wife. Shannon says the pandemic gave them 2.5 years to enjoy each other and their family&#8211;as his jet-setting work adjusted to worldwide Covid-19 regulations.</p>
<figure id="attachment_103200" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-103200" style="width: 1140px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-103200" src="https://dev.theshaderoom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1094933030-scaled-e1669835556548.jpg" alt="Virgil Abloh's Widow Gives First Interview About Their Private Relationship: ";I Knew Every Inch Of Him";" width="1140" height="635" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-103200" class="wp-caption-text"><em>PARIS, FRANCE &#8211; JANUARY 16: Designer Virgil Abloh poses with His Wife Shannon Backstage after the Off-White Menswear Fall/Winter 2019-2020 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 16, 2019, in Paris, France. (Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)</em></figcaption></figure>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Shannon Abloh&#8217;s 50-Year Plan To Cement Virgil&#8217;s Legacy </strong></h3>
<p>Regarding Virgil&#8217;s legacy, Shannon isn&#8217;t taking a backseat. She says it&#8217;s her place and position to steer the direction of his legacy.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;It belongs to me, it belongs to his children,&#8221; she said, adding that people from different areas of his life overwhelmingly expressed wanting to &#8220;help [Virgil&#8217;s] legacy&#8221; after death.</p>
<p>Shannon added, &#8220;It&#8217;s like this train that&#8217;s going 500 miles per hour, and I just thought: I have to stay on this train because if I don&#8217;t, I don&#8217;t know where it&#8217;s going to go. That&#8217;s my place and position.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>So what&#8217;s her plan? It&#8217;s far-reaching and all about highlighting and expanding Virgil&#8217;s creative visions. But it&#8217;s not a plan she discussed with Virgil, who learned of his illness in July 2019.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t like we knew that he was going to pass,&#8221; Shannon said. &#8220;Even though we knew the challenge of what he was fighting, it went a lot faster than we though it was going to. So we never had the &#8216;this is the legacy that I want you to work toward&#8217; discussion. But because I was with him for so long, I knew every inch of him. I knew every inch of his brain.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">So, Shannon is leaning toward what she believes Virgil would want.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">In May, she united his creative studio <em>Alaska Alaska </em>and Nike-venture <em>Architecture </em>under Virgil Abloh Securities. Shannon is the chief executive. The new company collaborated with Nike to create a four-day festival celebrating Abloh&#8217;s life and ideas&#8211;set to be introduced this week.</p>
<p>She also serves as the president of the Virgil Abloh Foundation, which will host a summit next year featuring her late husband&#8217;s collaborators. Additionally, Shannon is building an archive of the creator&#8217;s work.</p>
<p>Alaska Alaska&#8217;s business adviser says they&#8217;re on a &#8220;50-year plan.&#8221; And Shannon is loyal to Virgil&#8217;s ideas and how he wanted them to happen. The gist of his foundation is visibility and representation.</p>
<p>Shannon says Virgil <em>&#8220;didn&#8217;t want to be the only Black man in the room sitting at the table.&#8221;</em> And though she&#8217;s <em>&#8220;a white female,&#8221;</em> the widow says she&#8217;s committed to using the foundation to help ensure Virgil isn&#8217;t the last&#8211;though he was the first in many aspects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>How Shannon Is Coping With His Death </strong></h3>
<p>For the first six months after Virgil died, Shannon said her short-term memory <em>&#8220;was gone.&#8221; </em></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I kept thinking &#8216;is this normal?&#8217; It&#8217;s starting to feel a little clearer, and I&#8217;m able to, you know, get sentences out that make sense,&#8221; Shannon said.</p></blockquote>
<p>She also has regular sessions with another person who &#8220;knows how [Virgil] thought&#8221;&#8211; his former therapist.</p>
<p>And though she&#8217;s working overtime on Virgil&#8217;s legacy, the mother of two is also moving on from certain aspects of their life together. For example, she is building a new home. Shannon loves the <em>&#8220;beautiful memories&#8221;</em> of the old one but says it <em>&#8220;has a lot of sad memories too.&#8221; </em></p>
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