Hood By Air Returns

The cult brand Hood By Air is making a return to fashion after a three-year hiatus, according to social media posts from the brand's Instagram and Twitter accounts. Hood By Air was founded by Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez in 2006 and, in the 11 years until its hiatus in 2017, it became synonymous with raucous, radical fashion, bringing gender fluidity, club kid performance and streetwear together across its designer line, and accompanying streetwear line, HBA.

Launching tomorrow, Thursday 16 July 2020 at 11:00 EST, is a new venture from the brand called New World Citizen, for which all proceeds will support BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, police reform, and community arts charities. As you might expect, the news has been received with great excitement, creative director @thegeraldoliver commenting, 'I’m buying and idk what they even selling.'

Alongside New World Citizen, is a Cash App card launch; for readers outside the US, Cash App is a money sending platform which also offers a debit card so that you can spend the money that you've been sent in shops or withdraw it from an ATM.

Charities being supported by these initiatives include: Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, or BTFA Collective, who are Black trans femmes dedicated to making space for themselves in the arts and beyond; GLITS Inc. (Gays & Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society), a grassroots organisation dedicated to supporting the LGBTQIA community internationally; and Emergency Release Fund, a mutual aid organisation getting LGBTQ+ and medically vulnerable individuals out of New York prison Rikers Island and ICE detention.

Not content with one new launch, yesterday the brand introduced Anonymous Club - 'a vehicle to promote and sponsor young talent', the young creatives and their projects becoming a part of 'a community [called] the Hood By Air alumni'.