Cactus Plant Flea Market Drops Virgil Abloh Archives Clothing Collab

The late Virgil Abloh would have turned 45 today, and to celebrate his birthday Nike, alongside Virgil Abloh Securities, the Virgil Abloh Foundation, and Virgil Abloh Archives, presents Virgil Abloh: The Codes. The exhibit features roughly 5% of the 20,000+ objects in Abloh’s archives. Not only can fans catch some rare archival prototypes and teasers for what Virgil’s estate has cooking next, but cop new clothing celebrating the multi-hyphenate designer. One brand is Cynthia Lu’s Cactus Plant Flea Market, which launched the “Virgil Was Here” apparel collection on its site today.

CPFM’s collab with Virgil Abloh Archives features references to Abloh’s Canary Yellow imprint as well as his first-ever venture into the fashion world, Pyrex Vision. Recalling the early days of Abloh’s work, Cynthia Lu’s CPFM prints the number 23 on the reverse of the hoodie and the T-shirt alongside measurements found on Pyrex cups. If for some reason you’re unfamiliar with V’s original foray into streetwear design (not counting his work for Kanye), here’s a brief history lesson.

Virgil founded Pyrex Vision in 2012, with the name inspired by Pusha T’s bar from the iconic Clipse track Mr. Me Too, “Pyrex stirs turn into Cavalli furs.” Basically, Abloh wanted to combine street culture and high fashion into one. He would screenprint PYREX VISION on blank Ralph Lauren flannels and Champion T-shirts alongside Michael Jordan’s number 23, eventually dropping shorts and pants with the brand’s name.

These items were exorbitantly priced, sometimes, with the original Ralph flannel being sold for $550. Abloh looked at it as an art project, and he even embraced criticisms of the brand (albeit later during the Off-White days). There’s the famous rug placed within the Off-White showroom displaying a quote from journalist Jian DeLeon, “It’s highly possible Pyrex simply bought a bunch of Rugby flannels, slapped “PYREX 23” on the back, and re-sold them for an astonishing markup of about 700%.” Pyrex Visions eventually ceased operations in 2013 to make way for Off-White. And the rest is history.

CPFM’s Virgil Was Here collection with the Virgil Abloh Archives sold out online in less than an hour, but there are still items available at the Virgil Abloh: The Codes exhibit in Paris, France. We sent out an alert on the Sole Retriever mobile app when the clothing dropped, so make sure to download it if you want to stay updated in real-time on the latest releases.

Nicholas Vlahos

Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy attending concerts and catching the latest movies. Email: nick@soleretriever.com