AD PRO: Why did you decide to unveil it with Virgil’s Louis Vuitton men’s collection?
Stark: We’ve never let anybody move into our space before—ever. But we were proud of Virgil, and we’ve been friends with Michael Burke, the global CEO of Louis Vuitton, for a long time. And we were like, “OK, we’re going to do this.” It’s kind of like Chrome Hearts Airbnb, the first one ever. We took some stuff out, Virgil moved into our cabinets; we left some flowers, coffee, sugar, toilet paper, plunger.
Abloh: Chrome Hearts plunger.
Stark: The reason why we did it is we’ve been friends, we’ve done things together, and this is something we’ve been talking about for years. We thought this was the perfect time to showcase it and show the people this next level of things, instead of just jeans and hoodies and stuff like that. And at the same time, do a little something for the LV part of it.
Abloh: It’s open for people to view. The bench is on center display as the heart of the whole thing. I’m a creative person. Of course I have hats that are different brands and have different brand names on them, but why this is important is it’s like a human connection between two people making something, which I think is just honest work. I mean, this is for the most part unheard of. Two brands sharing a space. I was just on the phone with Michael Burke, and he was like, “Brands this big individually don’t need anyone.” So you’re never going to find someone who’s going to let their ego go to host. They have to be real connections. And we’re talking furniture, which is something we’re passionate about. Clothing and jeans and hoodies is stuff we have ideas for. It’s not at the forefront.
Stark: It’s very real.
Abloh: One of my favorite things in the store are the rolling cabinets that are fixtures for that space already. We added more to house my collection. Obviously I brought a bunch of clothes to the Airbnb, and I needed more closet space.
AD PRO: Classic New York dilemma.
Abloh: But I’m respecting the space. It’s the coolest living room and kitchen that I know, and I was like, “Hey, can I borrow it?”
Stark: It’s definitely different. First of its kind.
Abloh: At least we’re still friends. One thing I want to stress is that it’s a familial, family-oriented exchange. It’s not like LV or Virgil the guy that everyone is interested in. Like, if I was doing nothing and it all went away, I would just be doing stuff like this. I would be making things, either by myself or with friends. And if you look under the hood, Richard and I have been making stuff. We’ve made T-shirts, we’ve made jeans. It just went under the radar and sold out in seconds. This is the only time we’ve done an interview about this. But tons of kids have stuff in their closets already.