Hood By Air’s former creative director and founder Shayne Oliver has been selected by Jean Paul Gaultier to create a capsule collection. Oliver left his design collective to create a new collective titled Shayne Oliver Group. Meanwhile, the designer was also toiling on this 50-piece collection with Jean Paul Gaultier.
The new collaborative collection features pieces true to Oliver’s design codes of reimagined streetwear including baggy denim, distressed fabrics, and sportswear aesthetics. These pieces are all designed to fit the Jean Paul Gaultier narrative of cheeky, fun, and in-your-face clothing. The collection is set to launch on May 6 in New York, also the night of the anticipated Met Gala event. According to The Business of Fashion, the designer’s inspirations were pulled from the ‘90s era of Jean Paul Gaultier where denim was worn on couture runways.
“I didn’t want the collection to be about swag-ifying something high brow. It felt more organic for me to critique the things I find important in the modern wardrobe, and amplify that,” Oliver told BoF. “There was a lot of common ground there.”
This collection also comes as a revival of the Jean Paul Gauliter ready-to-wear line. The brand stopped creating ready-to-wear in 2014, then in 2020 the eponymous designer decided to step away from designing at his lauded brand. Since then, the company has relied on a guest designer program that has included Chitose Abe of Sacai, Simone Rocha, Olivier Rousteing, Haider Ackermann, and Glenn Martens of Y/Project.
Stay tuned for the Shayne Oliver and Jean Paul Gaultier ready-to-wear collection which will be launching on May 6 on jeanpaulgaultier.com