Founding and early years (2006–2009) Founded in 2006 by town designers Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez, Hood By Air went from a t-shirt oriented streetwear project to a cult brand at the forefront of New York's fashion new guard. In 2006, Oliver was running a brand and blog under the name Elite Urban Brigade. Editorial collaborators on the blog included Akeem Smith and
Mykki Blanco. Under Elite Urban Brigade, Oliver began printing one-off t-shirt designs, which he would sell at the New York streetwear store, aNYthing. During this period, Oliver met fellow designer Raul Lopez at an after-school programme run by the
Hetrick-Martin Institute in partnership with the
Harvey Milk High School, which Oliver was attending. Oliver introduced Lopez to his early blueprint for a brand which could expand on his Elite Urban Brigade ideas. After developing the concept further, the two began
printing t-shirts, eventually releasing the designs under the name Hood By Air. Whilst attending Harvey Milk High School, Oliver was accepted onto an art programme at
New York University (NYU). During this time he developed a strong link between his fashion concepts and music, which would underpin the Hood By Air brand and his creative career to date. During this time Oliver was a
dancer and
choreographer for the band
Hercules and Love Affair and would create costumes that he would wear as a dancer. Subsequently, Oliver designed merchandise for the band. In 2006 Oliver showed an early Hood By Air look at artist
Dash Snow's gallery in
Chelsea, New York. Soon after, with an expanding fan base and an enthusiastic reception from fashion buyers, Hood By Air found its first stockists in OAK NYC and Seven New York.
Opening Ceremony was also an early stockist of the brand. Designer
Telfar Clemens, who attended the show recalls, "it was kind of a
peep show, and sort of like a
block-party-slash-art-opening type of thing". Oliver credits each of these figures as co-founders of the Hood By Air brand. In May 2012, Hood By Air was included in
Norwegian artist
Bjarne Melgaard's group show 'Ideal Pole' at Ramiken Crucible gallery, New York. Hood By Air created a '
pop-up shop' as part of the exhibition, printing t-shirts with graphics that read 'Bareback By Air / Classics'. The t-shirts appeared in an
installation titled
Deferred Action, by the artists Jo Barage and Clinton Ellies. A second season of HBA Classics followed, supported by launch events at the VFILES. In June 2012, VFILES held an opening party for its shop at
Mercer Street in New York City's
SoHo. The event doubled as a relaunch event for Hood By Air, with Oliver and Venus X DJ'ing, and
A$AP Rocky performing. The moment has been referenced by
Complex as solidifying both HBA and VFILES as "relevant movements in fashion". VFILES would become known for stocking an assortment of emerging brands at the crest of a creative new wave in streetwear, including
Virgil Abloh's Pyrex, Been Trill, and Fear of God, alongside Hood By Air. In the months following the relaunch moment, Hood By Air and Been Trill released a collaborative t-shirt that would be popularised through extensive exposure by
A$AP Rocky, leading to a new frenzy around the brand. At the time, the hype around the product meant that Hood By Air was perceived as aligned with a streetwear fraternity, a notion which Oliver was dismissive of. According to the designer, the t-shirt was initially designed simply to be given to friends at a casual brunch, but became a "fucking phenomenon" according to Oliver. Shortly afterwards, in September 2013, Hood By Air presented its first
runway show, held at New York's Milk Studios. Presenting the brand's FW13 collection, Oliver cemented HBA's reputation for genre-blending and cross-cultural reference with a collection that paired bold graphics with progressive cut-and-sew pieces, and runway appearances from
A$AP Rocky and performance artist,
boychild [link], amongst the models cast for the show. As Hood By Air continued to show its collections in a runway setting, the brand signed with fashion publicists, PR Consulting. Soon after, Hood By Air presented its first collection in
Paris. The RTW Spring 2015 collection presented was billed as part two of what HBA had already unveiled at
New York Fashion Week, with an emphasis on
womenswear. The show invite – a lace-trimmed
thong – signalled as much. "This is a 'femme' take on the energy we produced in New York," Oliver said of the show. "It's flashier, with details that are louder, to show off a little bit." In October 2014
MoMA PopRally presented
Id, a party performance and multimedia installation by Hood By Air, held at the
Museum of Modern Art. The event was billed as "a performance masquerading as a party...
Id is an interactive, semi-virtual experience that includes a theatre, a live stream, and a "humannequin" installation" and featured performances by
boychild and
Mykki Blanco. Hood By Air was awarded the inaugural
LVMH Special Jury Prize in 2014. In 2014, Hood By Air joined the
New Guards Group.
New Guards Group era (2014–2016) Under a new business structure led by the conglomerate, which handled HBA's production, distribution, and sales, the brand focused on expansion, shifting its production emphasis to product rather than cultural spectacle. By this stage Oliver had moved the brand's headquarters to
Italy and Hood By Air began to work to a more intense fashion
schedule, including pre-collections in
Paris and expanding designs to include
leathers,
furs and
tailoring. In 2015 Hood By Air was selected for inclusion at the prestigious bi-annual menswear trade show,
Pitti Uomo 87. Against expectations that the brand would simply transplant New York culture to a Florentine setting, the brand chose to overtake a Tuscan villa, with tailoring a key emphasis of the collection. Speaking with
Vogue during a backstage interview, Oliver explained the show was "our first attempt to really push luxury in a full collection". This would be a benchmark moment for this era of Hood By Air, and signified the arrival of a new period of growth for the brand. The same year, Shayne Oliver received the 2015
Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Swarovski Award for Menswear. In May 2016, Hood By Air held a brand presentation at the
Delano Hotel during
Art Basel Miami Beach. During the show, which was presented in partnership with
MoMA PS1,
Instagram-cast models wore clothing from the designer's collaboration with photographer
Pieter Hugo, featuring Hugo's portraits of
LGBT Jamaicans.
W Magazine labelled the presentation "
Art Basel 2016's most
transgressive show". Having re-engaged the spirit of the brand upon returning to New York City, Oliver and his team began to experience a new challenge; continuing the scale of the post-New Guards Group operation as a small, core team — most of whom were not fashion insiders or business people but artists, musicians, image-makers, and other figures from the New York creative industries with close ties to the brand and its cultural workings. While e-commerce continued to run efficiently during this period, the retail business had outsized its operators. The brand had reached new heights of popularity, spurred on by support from celebrities such as
Rihanna who wore Hood By Air during a televised performance at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards In 2016, the brand released a
capsule collection in collaboration with the
pornographic video platform,
Pornhub the SS17 'Wench' collection. However, with external company interests calling for Oliver's design expertise, on April 6, 2017, Hood By Air announced that Oliver would be putting the brand on hold to take a new role at
Helmut Lang. Hood By Air entered a three-year period of hiatus.
Hiatus (2017–2020) The company remained on official hiatus between 2017 and 2020. During this time Shayne Oliver worked with several established fashion houses, as well as on personal creative projects. That same month, Helmut Lang also released the Helmut Lang Seen by Shayne Oliver Autumn Tour Merch collection, inspired by band tour merchandise.
Diesel Having completed his residency at
Helmut Lang, Oliver worked with Italian denim giant,
Diesel, unveiling a
capsule collection as part of the Diesel Red Tag Project in March 2018. The capsule, which saw Oliver subvert
Americana staples with his intricate reworking of
denim apparel, provided the designer with an opportunity to become familiar with new design processes, whilst further establishing his appeal as a solo designer.
Colmar In 2018 Oliver began to collaborate with heritage activewear label, Colmar. Applying his vision to the Colmar A.G.E (Advanced Garment Exploration) FW18 line, Oliver progressively reworked the brand's
mountain attire, adding a sense of outsized surreality to conventional outdoors wear. He described the collaboration as "juggling the iconic products of Colmar with my sense of performance and a
unisex approach to wearing fashion".
Second return (2020–2023) In July 2020, Oliver announced the official return of Hood By Air. In an accompanying statement, the designer stated, "gentrification leaves no physical spaces for new, influential ideas to exist or reside. So Hood By Air will be a place for these ideas to have a home." In March 2021, the brand fully relaunched with an
advertising campaign helmed by
supermodel Naomi Campbell. The brand relaunched with a new structure consisting of four distinct components: 'Hood By Air' maintains its position as the brand's elevated fashion offering; 'HBA' exists as direct-to-consumer product released under a streetwear-aligned 'drop' schedule; 'Museum' refers to archival pieces from the original Hood By Air brand, reinterpreted by guest designers-in-residence; and Anonymous Club is a creative studio driven by a collective of talent, with the purpose of engineering Hood By Air's wider brand narrative through ongoing collaborations and activations. Proceeds from the t-shirt sales were donated to several charities, including Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, Emergency Release Fund, and Gays & Lesbians Living In A Transgender Society. In March 2021, the brand further signalled its new visual era with an
advertising campaign helmed by Naomi Campbell. The campaign announced a new 'Prologue' phase for the brand. In April 2021, as part of the phase, Hood By Air released a new series of products under the capsule title 'Veteran'. The product was released in five 'drops' emulating the streetwear spirit that Hood By Air has been connected with in the past. Intended as a segue between the brand's past and future, the 'Prologue' phase retrospectively pays tribute to a list of 'characters', each of which represents a different era of the Hood by Air brand. As of 2021, Hood By Air is run by a board of directors including Oliver and
Edison Chen, who has taken over the role of
CEO. The brand remains an independent entity. On December 19, 2023,
Playboi Carti released the song
H00DBYAIR which is named after the brand. Oliver quietly left the brand in 2023 as a designer while remaining a partner in favor of starting his own corporation based in
Berlin. On January 15, 2024, Playboi Carti released the song
EVILJ0RDAN which he can be seen wearing Hood By Air in the music video. == Designs and shows ==