Todd Snyder is feeling inspired. The last time he showed in New York was in February 2020. New York Fashion Week has morphed into an entirely different creature since—finding some much-needed fresh energy along the way—and after some time off the runways, Snyder is also turning a new leaf.
He was a guest designer at Pitti Uomo this past January. The show was his return to the runway, and he went all out. “It was the biggest show I’d ever done,” said Snyder backstage before today’s presentation. “I pushed myself to a new place, and it was such a huge inspiration. That show gave me so much confidence.”
And confidence was exactly what was in the air this afternoon. This was Snyder at his finest.
The decision to show at Le Rock ticked a few boxes: Snyder has a store at Rockefeller Center, and it’s the iconic New York location that also inspired him to come back to the city where it all started for him. He also liked the idea of showing at a French restaurant in America, a nod to his original inspiration: Villa America, the French Riviera home of Gerald and Sara Murphy, two American expats who were known for their eclectic social circle, which included many artists from the Lost Generation. “Can you imagine those dinner parties?” said a bright-eyed Snyder. “I’ve been thinking about that lifestyle and what it would mean to bring it to America, always with that sensibility in mind.”
That sensibility involves a sense of ease. “Americans, we go rogue often; we blur the lines between formal and informal,” said Snyder. He opened the show with a soft blush pink suit made in a suede-y linen that was light as air and felt like silk. He cut an elongated and relaxed silhouette, shaping his tailoring away from the body and employing his sumptuous knits to offer a hint of skin with their open, airy gauges and their slinky fits. “It’s about studying the drape and the way a garment sits on the body,” said Snyder. That much was clear. These were some very sexy clothes, aided by the intimacy of the setting—50 or so guests with models gazing directly at the attendees as they swirled around the room, salon style.
Snyder quoted the South of France, but there was a certain Italianness to this collection; an ’80s Armani-esque sense of nonchalance and proportion made contemporary by his sumptuous and dimensional silk brocades, satin jacquards, and diaphanous printed voiles. He rendered his tailoring in bright tones of melon, pistachio, lavender, and azure, “the most color I’ve ever done,” he said. The result was fabulous, inviting, and—worth saying again—confident.
“I wasn’t thinking, Will this sell?” the designer said. “I was thinking of what inspires me, of where I want to go.” He meant that literally and metaphorically, looking at what’s next for his label. “I run a business, I’ve got 19 stores, and, of course, that’s important,” he continued, “but I’ve been focusing solely on that part and forgot about what inspires me. The show in Italy woke me up.” He may not have been thinking about whether this collection will or will not fly off the shelves, but it just might. An hour after the show, my phone buzzed with a text from a friend regarding Look 12: “Has Todd Snyder always been this good? Because I would wear the shit out of this suit!”
