To call Hood By Air brand a cult brand is to call one of their insanely popular streetwear pieces a hoodie. Right now, in this present moment, they're among the two or three brands that define the idea of a cult brand-just like their hoodies all but define the concept of a hoodie. (One might argue-probably quite successfully-that that honor would go instead to , but we'll wait until Paris Fashion Week to discuss that.)

All of which is just to say that their show last Sunday during New York Fashion Week felt more like a ceremony than a fashion show. And when we visited the brand's Lower East Side showroom (inside what looks to all casual observers to be a Chinese restaurant, thank you very much) we found out that that's how they think of it, too. Right down to the fact that it was on Sunday. Come to find out their shows are always on Sundays, and insiders always observe them as ceremonial. This last week, the service was all about a pilgrimage. Fall 2016 is about coming home.

As Raul and Sarah looked carefully over the pieces from the collection, I got to to talking with Christian Mooney, who I recognized from Sunday's runway show. As with other of-the-moment brands, Hood By Air is run like a family or a collective-to some degree at least. Christian says his role has changed over the years, starting "back before LVMH and all that," from fit model to runway model to merchandise and tracking.

Because just about everyone who was at the presentation last Sunday experienced it as a pretty intense scene-of the frenetic, emotionally driven stomping parade, New York Times writer Matthew Schneier said: "It was hard to look away."-I wanted to know what it was like for Christian, who was actually in it.

"It was more so a performance, you're correct that it was intense," Christian said. Madonna was playing in the showroom as we were talking, and her 1989 single "Oh, Father" had closed the show. Christian called the Madonna moment, "euphoric," and I guess I was feeling comfortable enough to question him on that-because I did.

"Europhic? Really? I always thought that song was more about surviving in this quietly headstrong way," I said. "To me it all just felt so dark, so chaotic and turbulent. I thought the encore was about survival-but just really barely. With a lot of recovery left to do."

I don't know why I felt like I could debate the meaning of the show with someone who was obviously far more inside the whole process than I was, but it was a natural, comfortable conversation and the fact that I wanted to really talk about it indicated something significant. There are shows that leave you breathless and shows that shine a light on impossible beauty, but there aren't that many shows that bury themselves under your skin.

Christian and I didn't agree or agree to disagree, we really just left it where it was and let the larger conversation-about the clothes themselves-take over.

He explained that the label's founder and designer, Shayne Oliver, had been in Milan sourcing materials and working on textiles, and when he came back home he had the feeling of leaving the Old World and traveling to America for the first time. The collection was then dubbed "Pilgramage."

The one-sheets placed on each seat last Sunday were mock airline tickets, coats and shirts found themselves attached to duffel bags and other baggage, and long, trailing sleeves, end pieces, and ties put one in the mind of flight gear and arcane army/navy surplus materials. (Imagine the shadowy underside of Karl Lagerfeld's last, airport-themed Chanel show.)

In the showroom we saw the more nuanced pieces up close, like this two-piece suit that Christian tried on (below), and a sort of 22nd Century Road Warrior vibe emerged while angora sweaters and complex, multi-wear knits connected to an overall '90s framework that so many designers are returning to right now.

HBA is every bit a streetwear mega force. Their logos equate with status, cred, and narrative, too. But more and more it feels like that narrative is asserting itself-the plot is pushing out past the branding to tell a real story, and we're listening.

-Laura Cassidy