After going strong for over a decade, New York label Hood By Air – designed by Shayne Oliver and Leilah Weinraub – decided to go on hiatus following its off-schedule AW17 show. At the time, the design duo explained they would be returning “in the near future” – and now that time has (finally) come.
Announced today on SSENSE, Oliver explained the reason why the label first shuttered. “I stopped protecting my own ideas and my beliefs. I feel I had done what was needed to get my points across to the world, but to push it further, you must believe in it,” he said. “So once that was lost, we all know what happened.” Since taking a break, the designer has collaborated with Diesel, Colmar, and Longchamp as well as working on the relaunch of Helmut Lang with Dazed’s Isabella Burley.
Over the years, Hood By Air disrupted the fashion industry – staging shows in gay saunas in Paris, shooting photobooks featuring Jamaican pornstars, and even getting Wolfgang Tillmans to model at its SS17 show. This attitude will continue through to the new iteration of HBA, with the label likely to avoid the regular fashion month schedule.
“I want to remove the brand from the conversation of just fashion in general, and allow it to exist outside of the fashion system, so people can really see I am not trying to prove anything or create a vocabulary for the fashion world,” the designer explained. At the moment, an official relaunch date hasn’t been announced, but we’re hoping for a big bonanza return featuring longtime HBA fans Mykki Blanco and Arca.
