Brand to Know: Hood Clothing

We love introducing you to cool new brand, so naturally we were excited when Ryan from Hood Clothing contacted us. Check out Hood Clothing! 

Hood Clothing Inc. is an underground brand inspired by the works of famous graffiti and street artist, Rene Gagnon.  In 2008, Gagnon was attempting to create a concept for a solo art show at a local gallery. As he was leaving his studio one night, Gagnon noticed two hooded silhouette figures walking towards him. As the two hooded figures approached, they had taken their hoods off to unveil that  they were two young, innocent women underneath, who were going to visit someone in the same building that Gagnon was leaving. The experience of being unable to see the women’s faces initially as they approached struck Rene Gagnon’s artistic senses in a mysterious way. He began to expand his vision by starting to observe and question his experience with the two hooded figures, and proceeded to correlate this experience with others and how they would react if it were them. Rene Gagnon put this concept in motion for his solo show with the use of the people whom portrayed the image of innocence, and then masked their appearances with hoods to recreate the sense of mystery. As he continued to work further with his original concept, Gagnon began to look into the deeper meaning behind the word “hood”, and other words which consisted of it, such as “neighborhood”, “brotherhood”, “sisterhood” and the actions associated with being deemed as a “hood.”

To portray his concepts, Rene Gagnon started to take photos of innocent girls in hoods acting like they were doing mischievous things, such as spray painting or putting up wheat pastes on the side of buildings, to include photography in his artwork. He noticed that the girls were all wearing different brands and wanted to change this in order to keep his work extremely original and unique. In order to do so, Rene Gagnon started to digitize the branding out of the photographs, which is ultimately where the first branding idea of Hood Clothing Inc. originated.

Once the brand had been developed, Samantha Gagnon, Rene Gagnon’s daughter and co-founder of Hood Clothing Inc., began to create the Hood Clothing Inc. movement by incorporating the people closest to her. Samantha approached a few of her college friends and questioned them as to whether or not they liked the concepts and would rep the clothing. Through their love and support, Hood Clothing Inc. began to grow from that point forward.

Hood Clothing Inc. officially dropped its first line in November 2011. Hood Clothing Inc. offers a quality product and prides itself on being 100% Made In America. All of Hood Clothing Inc.’s garments are adorned with customized embroidery, a reversible hang tag, and packaged to perfection with original hand sprayed graffiti boxes. Hood Clothing Inc. offers its consumers a wide variety of t-shirts, 3/4 sleeved t-shirts, zip-up sweatshirts, crew neck sweatshirts, leggings, tank tops, and accessories that are all inspired by the works of Rene Gagnon.

In order to help inspire others to reach their potential, Hood Clothing Inc.’s team is always looking for up and coming music artists, athletes, and entrepreneurs to sponsor. They currently sponsor several music artists, Cesar Luciano, Marvin Divine, YG Hootie and Raven Sorvino as well as a plethora of Major League Baseball players, and Sean Crowley, an amateur snowboarder. As well as sponsoring others, Hood Clothing Inc. has an ever-evolving group of Street Reps. They welcome all those who are interested in learning more and becoming apart of the Hood Clothing Inc. family to email samantha@hoodclothinginc.com with any inquiries.

Hood Clothing Inc. is currently featured on select web retailers, Karmaloop’s Underground Web ‘Kazbah’ (www.kazbah.com) and  Celeb-N-Couture (www.celebncouture.com); as well as select store retailers, such as Underground Culture (Tiverton, RI) and Mass Cartel (Fall River, MA).

Hood Clothing Inc. has been previously featured at the Dunkxchange (Boston, MA), The Ultimate Trunk Show (Manhattan, NY), and URI Welcome Back Party (Kingston, RI). Hood Clothing Inc. has also been feature in No Swag Ent: Movin On Up Magazine - November 2013 Issue, The Herald News “Family Threads” (front page), Fashdom.com Exclusive Video Interview, and FreshNation.com “Hype & Fashion”, as well as in previous store retailer Urban Skate (Milford, MA).

As far as the future is concerned,  Hood Clothing Inc. will be at the Dunkxchange event in New York City on December 21, 2013 at the Metropolitan Pavilion (125 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011). Hood Clothing Inc. will also have several product features and reviews in the February 2014 issue of The Blue Print Magazine featuring Jennifer Lopez.  Rene Gagnon will also be hosting his first ever large scale solo gallery show on January 11, 2014 at the Mecca Gallery Bushwick in Brooklyn, NY.

Through the amazing efforts and contributions of Rene and Samantha Gagnon, along with the rest of the Hood Clothing Inc. team, they have formed and incredible clothing brand which is not only producing high quality products, but has created the birth of a new movement. Be sure to check out HoodClothingInc.com and follow them on Twitter & Instagram: '@HoodClothingInc’.