Wanted: Who can fill Virgil Abloh’s shoes?

In this regard, Clemens, who has rewritten the rules of luxury retail and oversaw his brand Telfar’s best year at the height of Covid-19 with a strategy to control all its own sales, would also be a fitting replacement. Everything he stands for — inclusivity, community, independence — is everything a brand seeking to appeal to a new generation of consumers needs to embrace. What better way to do so than to make a hire who demonstrates that?

A few years ago, Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia invited Martine Rose to consult for the brand’s men’s wear collections. Her subversive eponymous brand draws references from rave, S&M and a general non-conformity and has attracted the likes of Rihanna. Having started her brand in 2007, just a few years later Rose had become the talk of the London fashion scene due to her unexpected approach. For example, she had only one look in her 2015 spring presentation, stating that sometimes “that’s all that needs to be said”.

Luxury fashion is no longer just the exclusive purview of a wealthy homogeneous demographic. Continuing to be relevant means tapping into the zeitgeist, but also having an eye on the future. Virgil Abloh embodied this, which is what made his appointment a stroke of genius on the part of the French house.

The three names touted as his possible replacement are among the best-placed candidates to take what he did forward as they have all displayed their own unique approaches to innovation and cultural relevance.