It’s about being obsessed with the persona that is wearing the thing, more than you are obsessed with the clothes, which is a lot of what is happening with HBA in the field of how people buy it. That’s what I actually liked about Helmut. He’s not even designing. He’s the inspiration as a thing itself almost.
The unveiling of the Hood By Air window installation at Barneys New York was a sexually tense trip through space and time. A flock of Upper East Side ladies on their way to buying Oscar de la Renta stopped to heckle the display. “This is ugly,” one of them egged at Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman, much to the delight of Hood By Air designer Shayne Oliver.