Off-White SoHo Store Closes After 8 Years

Off-White’s EM PTY GALLERY has closed its doors.

Virgil Abloh first opened his SoHo store in 2017 as a conceptual platform that merged art, experience, and retail into a single physical space. It was Off-White’s first brick-and-mortar in the US and its 12th store worldwide.

“I’m a curator alongside whoever I partner with to showcase art,” Abloh said of the New York City location, per Surface in 2017. “The clothing is brought in after as a response to the art. There are no [permanent] fixtures. Everything is removable.”

It’s unclear if the brand’s NYC store will relocate.

The news follows LVMH recently selling Off-White to Bluestar Alliance LLC in September, with LVMH describing Bluestar as “the perfect partner” to ensure that Abloh’s legacy continues to grow. LVMH reportedly bought a stake in Off-White in July 2021, months before Abloh passed away in November 2021 from a two-year battle with a rare type of cancer. At that point, he had been designing for LVMH’s Louis Vuitton for three years.

In the years since Abloh’s death, all six of Off-White’s China-based stores have also shuttered. However, many of the brand’s locations remain open, including Las Vegas, Miami, and Puerto Rico, and multiple stores in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.