The invitation for Hood by Air's Tuesday evening presentation, its first as part of the official Paris calendar, was printed on a pair of lace-bordered thong panties, which, the fashion consultant and eco-activist Julie Gilhart noted approvingly, were easily recyclable.
The thong led a throng to the 28th floor of the Tour Montparnasse, a 59-story office tower, where Shayne Oliver's New York label had taken over an entire floor of dusty, grimly lit raw space, albeit with a gorgeously unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower.
To arrive via undergarment, to set up shop, Eiffel-side, in what looked like a white-collar squat - suffice it to say, no need to fear that Hood by Air, whose New York shows have an anarchic energy entirely at odds with more manicured shows, would bow to Paris pieties.
Gender, for instance. It is women's fashion week, and Hood by Air's collection - 'Superego,' to complement 'Ego,' the collection it showed during New York Fashion Week, and 'Id,' the one it will show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in late October, a trifecta of enlarging ambition - was nominally women's wear. But only nominally (if even that). 'Ego' was more-or-less men's wear. 'Superego' was arguably for women, but the label prefers not to specify. Still, Mr. Oliver allowed, 'It's allowing us to open our market. The women's market is a thing.'
The models, arrayed in small groups on pallets, huddling under umbrellas or spinning on office chairs in empty rooms, wore shirts with the H.B.A. logo picked out in Swarovski crystals and fastened with what looked like mini meathooks, or pleated crop-tops hovering several inches above pleated skirts. Some were recognizably female, some recognizably male and some not recognizably either.
'This is what I feel like when I'm feeling butch,' Mr. Oliver said. 'I want a pleated skirt on.'
Embracing Hood by Air requires embracing such contradictions. At the very least, it requires abandoning any logic that would pre-empt the fashion group in the spirit of the party, for which Mr. Oliver's sometime DJ partner, Venus X, and the Kuwaiti electronic musician Fatima Al Qadiri provided the sepulchral beat.
Hood by Air's provocations have their antecedents, here and elsewhere. But the energy that enlivens them is enough that familiarity - even among the perennially jaded professional showgoers - does not, in this case, breed contempt.
On the contrary, Paris seems to be feeling what Mr. Oliver is feeling. In May, he was awarded honorable mention for the LVMH Prize, and several LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton executives were milling backstage. Tomoko Ogura of Barneys New York hugged Mr. Oliver and expressed interest in seeing the collection for women (the store already carries the men's). An impressive group was in attendance, despite the evening hour and a 20-minute wait to get upstairs.
'A lot of French older women are into it - all the French Vogue ladies,' Mr. Oliver said. 'I guess they've lived through a lot.'
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