Over the past few years, Tyler, The Creator has emphasized his desire to to be a prominent figure in the fashion/streetwear industry. His Golf le Fleur collections up to this point have primarily been in the form of sneakers through his deal with Converse.
In the time that he first became passionate about clothing, Virgil Abloh was at the top of his game working with rappers like Kanye West and A$AP Mob, as well as Nike and Off-White. However, it was not until 2019 where Tyler would meaningfully connect with Virgil, right as he committed to take Golf le Fleur to the next level. In a newly released interview with Fast Company, Tyler explained how Abloh was instrumental in helping him build a community of people to help him manifest his clothing goals: ““In 2019, it was when I decided, ‘Oh, dude. I think I’m going to do this le Fleur thing. And who really pushed me to do it was my boy Dev Hynes, Solange, and Virgil. And I was like, ‘Yo, man, I think I want to do this thing. He’s like, ‘Oh, what do you need?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t even know where to…’ ‘Here. Give me a week,’ [Virgil said]. Bro, he put me in contact with people in Italy and here and there, emails [and] calls, FaceTimes with people I don’t know.”
Now, fast-forwarding two years later, Tyler explained that the week Virgil died, was the week he was finally going to reveal the final products of his collection to him. He was intending to invite Virgil to view the products before he died, but was not able to because of the tragedy: :And this was the week that I was going to say, ‘Hey, Virgil, what you helped me with, what you got me started with, what your helping hand did, I finally get to show you what you did.’ I was like, ‘Fuck.’ I wanted him here so bad to see like, ‘Hey, look what I did.’ Because I wanted him to just say, ‘Fire.’ And I wanted him to know.”
Tyler emphasized how much he loved Virgil and how goodhearted he was to everyone he encountered: “He went out of his fucking way for everyone. It even took me a while to realize that. [Virgil was] good-hearted. I remember being weird. Like, ‘Why he fuck with everybody?’ Years ago. Not in a bad way, but I couldn’t—my hating, pretentious ass couldn’t fathom that someone could have such an open heart like that. And it took me a while to understand that. And I’m just like, ‘You are actually a fucking angel. You’re an angel, bro.’ He left his imprint. He did that. He did that. He a giant. I mean, that’s a giant. He did that. Did it.”
The hat and sweater Tyler wore in the interview are part of the upcoming Golf le Fleur collection. Check out the full interview below, and skip to the 18:25 mark to hear Tyler speak about Virgil Abloh.