Hood by Air announces relaunch

After a hiatus, Shayne Oliver's Hood by Air is making its comeback.

Founded in 2006, Hood by Air, or HBA, was lauded by fans and critics alike, earning both the LVMH Special Jury Prize in 2014 and a CFDA award in 2015. Many were therefore understandably surprised when Oliver took a break from the brand in April of 2017. The designer went on to serve as the artist-in-residence at Helmut Lang for Spring/Summer 2018, and now, in an interview with Ssense, Oliver has announced the return of HBA.

According to Ssense, the new HBA is "all about extracting the essential meaning of the brand, the personalization, impact, and storytelling that made HBA so refreshing in the past," with concepts that reflect the designer's "critical views on materialism and mass culture, offering potential solutions while proposing new models for consumerism."

In the interview, Oliver explains that the rebooted label will ground itself in a strong brand image that honors HBA's core, creating its "own boxes in order to be understood." Notably, the designer said that the traditional fashion calendar won't be a priority for the new HBA.

"Fashion weeks, at this point, are no longer for the people that need them," Oliver told Ssense. "Through runways, these younger kids essentially just become mood boards for bigger corporations who have the capability to push out [their] ideas at a faster, more commercial, more developed rate. I don't feel the need to be in that conversation. 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."

Oliver further said that while HBA will not have any retail locations right away, the label will "introduce new models inside our system that will offer contemporary retail experiences."

Plans for the debut come-back collection for Hood by Air have yet to be announced.

Hood by Air announces relaunch

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