After last season’s aesthetic detour to Havana and Miami, Todd Snyder was back in familiar territory for fall. The two towering moodboards in his studio featured orderly rows of photographs: moody abstract paintings, close-up shots of candy-colored cologne bottles, rugged vintage automobiles, the smooth lines of classic timepieces, and portraits of director David Lynch and jazz musician Miles Davis. “As I’m thinking about a collection, this is where I go,” Snyder said during a preview. “I start thinking about, ‘What’s the car? What’s the watch?’ What he’s wearing, where he’s going, what he’s listening to—the full character.” If there was a period he homed in on, it was the middle of the last century, the apex of a certain heady artistic milieu in New York. “There’s a world of the ’50s that inspired me because I felt like design and creativity were at their height,” he said. “You saw amazing people do amazing things.”
Snyder also looked back to his own first collection, shown 15 years ago. He pointed to one picture of a model in a navy officer’s coat, pulled from that debut. “This is still one of our key classic styles,” he said with a mix of awe and pride. “The proportions have changed, but the philosophy stayed the same.”
Snyder is an American designer through and through, a Midwesterner who cut his teeth at Ralph Lauren and J.Crew, brands that have defined this country’s visual identity. And while not political, per se, he hinted that American style is, really, an amalgamation of outside influences. “British tailoring, Italian ease, and Japanese precision all inform how I interpret design,” he said.
How did that translate to the clothes? The louche fluidity and sun-dappled tones of spring were reigned in, swapped for a more contained, traditional Snyderian look. Still, there was a sense of ease throughout. Double-breasted suits in tropical wool were cut with slightly exaggerated shoulders and an easy drape for “an expressive silhouette,” Snyder said, while double pleated trousers came with a higher, Hollywood waist, a gentle taper, and a slight crop. The knits contained just a whiff of English countryside, with argyle, tartan, and classic checks rendered in rich earth tones and made from light cashmere and boiled lambswool. Creased Japanese denim was styled with point collar shirts and silk ties, a remix of prep and mid-century cool that Davis so effortlessly embodied. Outerwear remains a strong seller, and Snyder pulled out a few favorites from the nearby racks, including a beefy, floor-skimming cashmere overcoat in brown, a checked mackintosh, hunting jackets in equestrian plaid, and a few sleek vintage-style leather jackets. “I like the rock ‘n’ roll influence because it makes things a little edgier,” he said.
This collection reiterated that Snyder’s strength is his magpie tendency, picking from here and there and putting it through a grinder to suit his needs. He has a curious eye (and, to hear him tell it, is a prolific Pinterest user). A little military here, a little English trad there, sprinkle some prep or Western or rock ‘n’ roll on top, and you’ve got a collection—masculine without being costume-y; interesting without being try-hard.
But more than that, he’s a menswear nerd, in the best possible way, excited to show you a sweater in a dusty shade of faded pink or declare he’s been feeling monkstrap shoes again. That roving mind and enthusiasm are what make his collections the ideal solution for men who want something between silly runway theatrics and the drab, cookie-cutter brands that dominate the DTC space. Something real, something thoughtful. He offers timeworn familiarity with just the right amount of novelty and detail. Or, as he put it: “There’s always going to be a play between classic and modernity. There’s always a push-pull.”
On the way out, Snyder pointed to a photograph on his moodboard by Paul Strand, a stark black and white image of commuters on New York’s Wall Street. “Even though it’s from 1915, it looks so modern,” he said. One’s eye couldn’t help but wander to the images from his first collection scattered throughout and have a similar thought: 15 years later, and it still looks so modern.
