Shayne Oliver’s Hood By Air has always been about more than just the clothes since its 2006 runway debut. His shows are brash performance-art pieces that consistently challenge gender conventions. This season, school uniforms — namely, perversions of uniform dressing that would guarantee detention — provided the theme.
The results: , replete with naughty riffs on Catholic-schoolgirl pleated skirts and deconstructed dress shirts that were cropped to expose a couple inches of belly yet were demurely buttoned all the way up, plus baggy, spliced denim (you know, for just completely disobeying dress code). A few looks resembled wrestling uniforms, with white bands emblazoned with "HBA" restraining the models’ arms, and the opening number was completely backless. After walking (stomping, really) down the winding catwalk, models stood, sat, or sprawled on the laps of one another at the runway’s end, composing the coolest detention-room tableau imaginable.
The collection was full of gender-bending looks, as we’ve come to expect from Oliver. He downplays the androgyny factor these days: “At this point, I've sort of dealt with gender issues within my perspective and I just feel like it's part of the DNA of the family of the brand,” Oliver told the Associated Press. But the way Oliver’s designs explicitly defy gendered tropes is impossible to miss, and is always one of the most compelling aspects of his work.
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Pleated skirts; flowy, high-slit dresses; lace-up platform sandals; and clutches or backpacks resembling the chintzy tufted throw pillows normally spotted at your grandma’s home were shown on both male and female models. (Those cushion-y accessories are actually inspired by the pillow Empire’s Cookie tried to smother Lucious, her ex-husband/on-and-off lover, with in Season One). With the collection’s shades of pink and surprisingly frilly touches, there were more feminine vibes than in any previous HBA collections at face value.
There was a message behind the makeup, too: Models’ faces were streaked with varying shades of foundation and powder, using contouring techniques but intentionally skipping that crucial last step of blending. It felt like a cheeky bit of commentary on pop culture’s obsession with Kardashian-level preening and plastic-y perfection, as well as on fitting in versus standing out. Even the soundtrack was significant — it was the first track by Wench, a new collaboration by Oliver and producer Arca, which mixes everything from t.A.T.u. to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, along with Oliver rapping. Wench’s debut album is expected to roll out next year.
Oliver’s naughty-schoolkid models were chosen this season by Walter Pearce, who handled street casting, and Evelien Joos, who handled agency casting, with an eye for the unconventionally beautiful. (The non-professionals seemed to walk with the most swagger.) Even without a vogueing finale, models on crutches, or a Great Dane on the runway, you can count on Oliver to give the fashion crowd a hell of a lot of mull over.