Ib Kamara announces departure as Off-White resale prices fall 9% in a year

Ib Kamara is leaving Off-White after three years. With his resignation as creative director now official, the brand faces its first change of leadership since founder Virgil Abloh's death in 2021. Kamara, who had led the label since 2022, has not yet named a successor, and plans for the September show remain unannounced.

According to The RealReal's August resale report, GMV (gross merchandise value, the total sales volume on the secondhand market) for Off-White goods has fallen roughly 9% over the past year. Since Abloh's death, the brand has changed ownership three times: it moved from New Guards Group to Farfetch in 2019, LVMH acquired a 60% stake in 2021, and Bluestar Alliance took over in 2024. Along the way, the brand also closed its New York flagship store and pulled back its retail network in China.

Amid this backdrop, Off-White launched a lower-priced sub-line called 'L/AB c/o Off-White' last June, with T-shirts and hoodies priced in the low hundreds of dollars, alongside partnerships with Pacsun and Costco. The same period brought other strategic shifts, including a new watch collection, celebrity collaborations with the likes of Kid Cudi, and a move of its runway show from Paris to New York Fashion Week. Kamara's departure was announced just as these strategic pivots were converging.

Source · Glossy, "As Off-White creative director Ib Kamara exits, has the brand lost its way?"

Willy Chavarria is exploring a way to let shoppers hear his voice without him actually being there. The designer said he is considering adding an AI-cloned version of his own voice (a synthetic voice trained on the characteristics of his real one) to his brand's online shopping screens, so that as shoppers browse the collection, the voice would narrate directly and answer questions.

In an interview, Chavarria said, "Someday you might hear my voice. It'll sound like me and talk like me." In other words, even when the designer isn't physically present in a store or on a screen, an AI voice modeled on his would take on the role of explaining the brand in his place. It marks a case of Chavarria testing an AI version of himself.

That said, no concrete timeline has been disclosed for when or in what form this feature might actually launch. It's also worth noting that this is a concept the designer says he is still exploring, rather than a confirmed plan. The attempt to recreate a deeply personal marker of identity, one's voice, through AI and attach it to an e-commerce experience raises the question of how far, and in what way, a designer's personal presence should be automated.

Source · Glossy, "Willy Chavarria is testing an AI version of himself"

RealSnap's AI Model Face lets you build and save a brand's own virtual model from a single portrait photo. Inside the Snap Tools menu, you first decide how closely the result should resemble the original person, and once the face is finalized, you can recall it for use in later shoots.