Coming of A.G.E. With Shayne Oliver

The word ‘collaboration’ ignites our senses and instantly gains our attention. 

Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver is spreading his creative talent across the globe and after his recent collaboration with Diesel, he is back on our radar unveiling a three-season partnership with Italian sportswear giant Colmar. The collaboration is part of Colmar’s new creative movement A.G.E. which stands for Advanced Garment Exploration, a hyper-contemporary platform of experimentation that will allow designers to reinterpret Colmar’s classic style. 

Colmar is a big name in the alpine world, founded in 1923 it has become synonymous with its high-performance ski wear and après aesthetic. Using its heritage and recognising the increasing bond between performance wear and fashion, Colmar has created a new hub for innovation. A.G.E. is a space for guest designers to produce a selection of imaginative avant-garde pieces that utilise technical fabrications but remain true to Colmar’s sportswear roots. 

The first guest designer to become part of Colmar A.G.E. is streetwear pioneer Shayne Oliver, who has dipped into Colmar’s archives to present a visionary collection of supersized outerwear. Deconstructing key elements of classic ski jackets and reworking them he has created a variety of parkas, puffer jackets and over-trousers. Coats have extra hoods and sleeves and are a mix of garish and muted colours and pieces can be completely reversed or worn back to front. On piste or in the city, there is no wrong or right way to the collection, it’s in the wearer's hands. 

Shayne Oliver discusses the collaboration, “Colmar has an incredible heritage in outerwear and it is indisputably the master of ski apparel. Searching through their almost centenary archives was exciting. And it was particularly intriguing to transform these collections and reconfigure them through street language and my aesthetics. Our encounter is an experiment in mood and energy which drives the outerwear collection to the maximum, juggling the iconic products of Colmar with my sense of performance and a unisex approach to wearing fashion.”

The Colmar A.G.E. by Shayne Oliver collection will launch on the 22nd September and be available online.

Words by Alexandra Oliver