New York-based designer Shayne Oliver started designing the radical streetwear brand Hood By Air in 2006, but it was this past Saturday, May 18, at the Los Angeles Melrose Avenue Scion gallery that marked the brand’s first pop up retail installation, which is currently open to the public for the next four weeks.
The opening party scene was set with a tight guest list, a crowded outdoor patio and the man of the hour himself playing DJ to the dance-happy partygoers. The celebratory atmosphere perfectly complimented the youth culture lifestyle of Oliver’s Hood by Air collaboration with Toyota’s Scion.
Oliver has teamed with the youth-centric Scion brand, comparing driving the luxury car to that freeing “feeling of riding a bike.” The Generation Y-favored car, he adds, “[understands] the modern person and their desire for the accessibility of luxury and self-expression.”
Scion’s mission of empowering young creatives is very much in alignment with Oliver’s own design philosophy. The designer characterizes the capsule collection, entitled MORPH, as his interpretation of what he calls, “the new norm,” using his clothing as a literal way to rebel against societal standards. With Oliver at the helm of the outrageously inventive fashion initiative, and with the support of the creative forces at Scion, the up-and-comer hopes to set an example by continually “changing the standards of what’s different.”
