The genderless make-up and fragrance line was created by Virgil Abloh before his untimely death last year
Off-White has officially entered the “beauty” game. The fashion label announced today that it has branched out into the category with a new genderless range named “Paperwork”, thus following in the footsteps of Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Burberry, Tom Ford, Gucci, Hermes, Georgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, and Givenchy.
Conceptualised to enable everyone to express themselves, regardless of age, gender and race, Paperwork was created by Virgil Abloh before his sad passing last Autumn and debuted posthumously on the A/W22 runway. The range, which launches with fragrance and will expand into make-up and nail polishes imminently, features four scents, six face and body pigment crayons, alongside stencils, and six nail polishes.
Abloh’s vision for the brand was as “another canvas, another surface for human expression,” and Vogue reports he often used a sandbox metaphor to describe it: “As a child, you’re put in a sandbox and you’re given tools to tap into your imagination and create whatever elements come to you – shapes, patterns, structures.”
The four fragrances were created by Abloh in collaboration with perfumers Alexis Dadier, Jerome Epinette, and Sidonie Lancesseur, and “transmit a palpable vibe”. Solution No.1 is a fresh, sporty, sexy fragrance with 90s undertones inspired by the textures, colours and aromas of sand. “Ranging in hue from white to black, with thousands of off-white shades in between, these chromatic granules continuously circumvent the world on its winds and seas, contributing to a shared global culture,” the description reads. Solution No.2, meanwhile, is a zesty, energetic, confident fragrance with notes of tangerine leaves and orange blossom.
Solution No.3 is described as a modern romantic, seductive fragrance. Anchored in the “most beautiful and timeless of flowers,” the scent gives prominence to rose absolute from Grasse. Lastly, Solution No.4 combines freshness with warm woodiness and is based on Epinette’s sense of nature enveloping the urban. All scents are housed in industrial glass bottled topped with grip control knobs, replicas of the handles that close the vats found in industrial fragrance facilities – a reflection of Abloh’s interest in industrial manufacturing processes.
The face and body solid pigment crayons were inspired by Abloh’s street-art codes and tagging gestures. Waterproof and smudgeproof they will come in a variety of bold colours including red, lime and indigo. The nail polishes span texture as well as colour. The shade “Decode”, for example, is a white polish that shatters as it dries for a crackled finish.