Hood By Air (often stylized as HBA) was a fashion and streetwear brand based in New York City co-founded by designers Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez. Launched in 2006, Lopez left the brand three years later. The label took a hiatus from 2017 to 2019. Oliver left the brand in 2023 but remains a partner.
Brand The designer was Shayne Oliver, a former student at the Fashion Institute of Technology and New York University who described his design aesthetic as "ghetto gothic" and banjee. Oliver was named among The 25 Greatest Black Fashion Designers by Complex. Oliver brought in the conceptual artist and filmmaker Leilah Weinraub as CEO and cofounder in 2012. Weinraub was openly skeptical of the brand's celebrity endorsements. The company was notable for refusing outside investment. In the past, Hood By Air, also known by the acronym HBA, has identified as a "luxury streetwear brand," a term coined by Oliver and now "synonymous with HBA's subversive use of logos, high-end production values and an ingenious online presence".
Hood By Air is notable for its collectively-driven creative output, collaborating with a large network of artists, performers, and other figures from the New York creative industries, as well as global brands. The brand has been the recipient of several fashion accolades and awards, including the LVMH Special Prize (2014) and CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear (2015).
History
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. After leaving NYU, Oliver attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), but left after one semester.
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.
In 2008, Hood By Air held its first presentation at artist Terence Koh's A.S.S. gallery in Chinatown, New York. 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". The presentation was an early example of what was to become a hallmark for the brand; a spectacle-driven approach that merges conventional runway shows with personality-driven performances and presentations.
In 2009 Hood By Air held its first official fashion presentation at OAK NYC, launching the Hood By Air Classics line. This subcategory of the brand encompassed Hood By Air's graphic-based designs on t-shirts and basics, complimenting the brand's now increasing focus on ready-to-wear. The presentation featured a performance by Kid Cudi. Soon after this presentation, Lopez left the brand.
Growth and recognition (2009–2014) Oliver continued to build Hood By Air together with a core group of creative collaborators in New York. From 2009, whilst working on Hood By Air Oliver was involved with GHE20G0TH1K, a club night launched by Jazmin Soto, aka Venus X, in New York City. The party, which moved around venues in Williamsburg and the Lower East Side, brought together NYC's diverse creative communities and is widely celebrated as an influential party in the nightlife of the city. "We created a glamorous, fashion-friendly, art-friendly, freak fest," said Soto. "Everyone was welcome and everyone felt cool there. Everyone liked it." The culture and community around GHE20G0TH1K has been a paramount influence on Oliver's designs and the Hood By Air brand. Venus X is credited by Oliver as a major contributor to the growth of culture around the brand. Oliver also met Venezuelan musician Alejandra Ghersi, aka Arca at GHE20G0TH1K, forming a relationship that led to the pair working together on a continued basis.
After a short hiatus, Oliver launched what he describes as the second iteration of the brand. Bringing filmmaker, Leilah Weinraub, on board as CEO the pair formulated business plans that led to a revised focus on fashion presentations. HBA's global brand ambassador, Ian Isiah, and Kevin Amato, the brand's casting director, remained collaborators. New additions to the team included Paul Cupo signing on as design director, and Akeem Smith join as head stylist. Zachary Ching, at the time creative director at New York fashion retailer VFILES, would also join the brand as its commercial director. 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.
Amidst the business growth under New Guards Group, however, Oliver felt a sense of creative regression as a consequence of focusing heavily on product, taking away from investing his energy into the cultural landscape that had always defined Hood By Air. After three seasons with New Guards Group, showing two to three collections per season, Hood By Air left the group and returned to New York in 2016.
Return to New York and hiatus (2016–2017) Back on home ground, Oliver set about recapturing the energy of the brand before its move to Italy. Re-orienting towards conceptual presentations meant he had the freedom once again to design clothes and accessories specifically for runway moments, without such commercial pressure to sell through as the brand experienced during the New Guards Group era. Hood By Air's Fall 2016 Ready-To-Wear collection, titled 'Pilgrimage', was completed and shown in New York during NYFW. Reflecting on the collection, Vogue suggested that Oliver's time in Italy had added to the brand's technical expertise: "the new clothes reflect the strides he's made: There's a confidence that runs through, from the mind-boggling technical complexities of the outwear to the cheeky slogan bodysuits to the streetwise buckets hats", adding that Oliver has an "instinct for what's next"
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".