Shayne Oliver, è esploso come fenomeno del fashion internazionale poco dopo la data di nascita del suo brand nel 2006. Ha 26 anni, ma ha scelto da che parte stare nella vita quando di anni ne aveva solo 13 e viveva a Brooklyn. Nero, originario del Minnesota, ha fatto allora coming 0ut , dichiarandosi gay, in un ambiente che non può proprio definirsi illuminato. Per concludere il quadro va detto che la sua fashion director si chiama Leilah Weinraub, ed è una che dell’impegno per i diritti di omosessuali (gay e lesbiche) ha fatto una bandiera. (Corriere Fiorentino)

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Minnesota-born Shayne Oliver is the founder of New York City based label Hood By Air. Raised in Trinidad and Brooklyn, he started his cult menswear label in 2006, making sweatshirts and T-shirts for his friends after dropping out of both NYU and FIT.
Since then, Oliver has been perfecting a look of his own, incorporating 90s staples like oversized tees, bold logos and graphics, with super premium materials and progressive silhouettes. With its bold 1990s-style graphics, striking silhouettes and high-fashion elements borrowed from the playbooks of Raf Simons and Helmut Lang, Hood By Air has managed to capture the energy of today’s mashed-up youth culture while upending traditional concepts of power, race and gender with a look that is both sensual and tough, androgynous and masculine.
The street wear thread that runs through his clothes, including the shirts that pun on glamour and cultural obsessions (for spring 2012, he created a line of tees that play on the Paramount logo), are favourites at boutiques such as Colette and Opening Ceremony, and include supporters like Kanye West, Rihanna, Ciara, Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky.
Famous for its logo – a bold “HBA” in caps, either white on black, or black on white – Hood By Air was a nominee for the CFDA’s Swarovski Award for Menswear, and internationally, as a runner-up for the inaugural LVMH Prize.