Shayne Oliver's Return to Fashion Is Typically Subversive
Shayne Oliver is back in fashion following a brief month-long hiatus and, as usual, he's willfully going against the grain. The Hood By Air era is over; it's officially time for the Shayne Oliver Group.
Oliver's first project under his eponymous imprint is “The Mall of Anonymous,” which was initially revealed when he confirmed his departure from HBA in June.
For this debut effort, the Berlin-based Oliver will turn this historic Schinkel Pavillon into a “a two-and-a-half-store walk-in sculpture" that knowingly turns dying American malls on their head.
Each part of said sculpture has been designed to represent one of the three brands the Shayne Oliver Group is launching: the high-end-fashion-label Shayne Oliver, the collaborative label Anonymous Club, and As Seen by Shayne Oliver (ASSO), a label for elevated basics.
Oliver, who co-founded Hood By Air in 2004, explained that he was exiting the label so that he could “focus on a series of new projects spanning fashion and art” after almost two decades at the HBA helm.
This new chapter of Oliver's career will be showcased from August 11, 2023 in Berlin, with photography, film, and samples set inside an exhibition that’s both a nod to traditional mall architecture and the creative headspace from which ideas spring forth.
You can expect more than a little metaphoric experimentation; through Oliver's trained eye, the mundane is elevated into the magical, as the motifs that defined Oliver's Hood By Air are made anew.
For instance, the sculpture at the heart of Oliver's “The Mall of Anonymous” splits a mother and child, representative of Oliver’s simultaneous struggle and embrace of his upbringing.
Similarly, he describes “The Mall of Anonymous” as an ironic take on the traditional infrastructure of consumerism, its historical legacy, and its decline.
Malls may be dead but Oliver's ingenuity is very much alive.
