Hood By Air, adored of New York City’s downtown elite, A$AP Rocky, and critically praised by everybody from the New York Times to Vogue, is a streetwear label that has been on our radar since its debut collection, so it was with much anticipation we attended the London unveiling of the Hood By Air and Been Trill collaboration at Selfridges. Fittingly held in the underground car park of the mega department store, the brand showed not only pieces from the HBA X Been Trill line, but also the forthcoming collaboration with British heritage knitwear brand Corgi, to hit stores in October, in a skate park meets underground nightclub setting that drew the hippest crowds seen from amongst London’s trendsetters, alongside 90210’s Shenae Grimes and Brooke Candy.
Tattooed model Jimmy Q led a phalanx of skaters and rollerbladers (many street cast in London) through the crowd in the ultimate spectacle of fashion and cool. The collection itself plays on gender subversion (amplified through styling touches of garters and stockings) whilst remaining defiantly masculine and sinister. This is ‘All American’ street goth perfection, a new aesthetic that is an alternative vision of the dominant varsity/collegiate style with which knitwear is associated; hip hop meets skater boy toughness with a respect for the nature of fashion and the British heritage of Corgi itself. Combining draped, flowing silhouettes with opposing fitted sweaters with cut out sections, knit harnesses and aprons, mainly adhering to a black, white and red colour scheme, Hood By Air do the seemingly impossible; make your Grandfathers sweater an item of fashion forward covetability.