Photo: Leandro Justen/BFAnyc.com

As the lights went up in the stripped bare Wall Street setting on a frozen Sunday morning, the loudspeakers blared an audio clip from Empire, “I want to show you a faggot,” remixed over jazz and classical music. The Hood By Air FW15 show had begun, and first up was a semi anonymous model, face blurred and obscured by a stocking that smushed features together in an almost clown-like fashion, the association helped along by hair styling and tonal differences between stocking and skin.

For more fashion week coverage, click here.

This was not quite the affair Shayne Oliver showed for his label last season, with appearances by giant dogs and artists like Boychild. The scene was set this time by a custom floral Regimes de Fleurs fragrance wafted through the location, and the clothes spoke all on their own. Oliver’s inspiration stemmed from the pimps of the ’70s, prisoner uniforms (as evidenced by the color orange in the collection,) and as always, ambisexual dress.

Check out 26 photos from backstage at Hood By Air by clicking here.

Whether it was impressed upon the models to walk this way or necessitated by the stage, Hood By Air’s men and women walked with their eyes cast downward, shy, with in the case of one or two looks, with a little bit of difficulty.

The show featured both men and women, but either could have been anyone — most sported grills under lock and key (gimp mask-like,) stockinged faces, and the ambisexual cuts and tailoring for which Hood By Air is known. Slits in dresses shown on male models were taken to new heights. There were also mini skirts and mullet hemlines in the mix, and plenty of deconstructed fur — there was the pimp reference. Reference to bondage was there in details vaguely resembling corsetry, giant logos over layers of fur restricted movement. The knife pleated pants ballooned out nicely.