IKEA x Virgil Abloh Off White: how to buy MARKERAD in the hottest homeware collaboration of the year

Louis Vuitton's artistic director Virgil Abloh has joined forces with Swedish furniture experts IKEA to create a quirky new interiors collection. 

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Sophie Warner1 November 2019

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has joined forces with Louis Vuitton’s menswear artistic director, and founder of OFF-WHITE, Virgil Abloh to create a stylish new range MARKERAD, designed with young people furnishing their first home in mind.

The US fashion designer is a frequent Kanye West collaborator best known for his high-end streetwear but has also worked on furniture and interior design in the past.

Abloh's brand OFF-WHITE was also responsible for Hailey Baldwin's tailor-made wedding dress for her second wedding to Justin Bieber in South Carolina in September.

Featuring his signature block lettering the words, 'Till death do us part" were embroidered at the bottom of the floor length veil.

With prices costing up to £2,600 for a trench coat from his OFF-WHITE range, the IKEA collection is a chance to get your hands on Abloh's designs without a bank loan.

Prices start from £10 for a cushion cover and go up to £250 for a wooden dining table.

In the making for over a year, the collection's name, Markerad, is Swedish for crisp or pronounced and features a capsule collection of 15 pieces.

Billed as 'fashion you can't wear', Virgil has focussed on turning everyday objects into high-concept statement dressing for the home.

“It’s about elevating the anonymous, everyday icons that we use without noticing. When we put a doorstop on one of the legs of an ordinary chair we create something unexpected – an interruption,” says Abloh.

But, with space a premium for many young buyers and renters, each piece has been designed to be 100 per cent functional as well as fashionable.

The stand out piece from the collection is the quirky monochrome rug, priced at £75, designed to look like an IKEA receipt.

There's a wooden day bed, priced at £175, and a cheeky light-up framed Mona Lisa print for £65.

A white clock has no numbers on the face but is emblazoned with the word "Temporary", while bedlinen in neutral colours features orange labels with gallery-style text on them and an orange toolbox is labelled "Homework".

The most expensive item is a wooden dining table priced at £250.

But there's a catch. You won't be able to walk into any IKEA store to purchase the collection.

Eager customers signed up for a limited number of tickets in mid-October to visit IKEA Dublin, Wembley and Croydon.

The lucky ticket holders will have chosen a day — November 1, 2 or 3 — to shop until they drop, or to pick up their five pieces they're allowed to purchase.

From 4 November onwards, if there is any stock remaining, customers without tickets will be able to purchase collection pieces from the IKEA Wembley and Croydon stores.

Scroll through the gallery above to browse the full collection.