Todd Snyder, a Designer Raised in Iowa, Is Big in Japan
Yet
even after leaving J. Crew at 40 to found his own label, after being
nominated for a C.F.D.A. award and after being named one of GQ’s best
new men’s wear designers, Mr. Snyder remained an under-the-radar talent.
“The
very first show he did, the first real show on models, just blew me
away,” said Madeline Weeks, the fashion director of GQ, referring to Mr.
Snyder’s 2011 New York Fashion Week presentation.
Editors went on to prove their enthusiasm by photographing Channing Tatum, John Legend and the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in Mr. Snyder’s clothes.
Still,
he generated little of the buzz that has accompanied other debuts, and
that, too, may have had something to do with Mr. Snyder’s Midwestern
reserve.
“There’s just not a big ego there,” Ms. Weeks said.
Then,
in a turn of events few could have anticipated, Todd Snyder suddenly
became famous. If not quite a rock star, he is suddenly a mini-cult
figure, a Next Big Thing, a fashion name to know. If it happens you are
unaware of this recent turn of events, that is probably because it took
place in Japan.
Backed by the same group of Japanese investors who made the low-key British designer Margaret Howell
into a phenomenon far from home, Mr. Snyder opened a three-story
concept store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo last March. It was his
own steroidal version of the J. Crew Liquor Store, with elements of City
Gym (a New York pop-up he opened this year in partnership with
Champion) thrown in.
Naturally,
shoppers at the Townhouse, as the Tokyo store is called, encounter the
well-proportioned suits that are a Snyder specialty, the high-end
athletic wear he designs better than almost anyone else and the
accessories for which he draws inspiration from his extensive collection
of vintage haberdashery.
But
they also find on the store’s lower level an array of the goods Mr.
Snyder produces in collaboration with heritage brands he likes —
including PF Flyers and Superior bags — along with a selection of
vintage watches, fine cameras, art books, furniture, whiskeys and just
about anything else that catches his practiced eye.
“That’s
just something I’ve always been good at, making those connections,” Mr.
Snyder said. “I found companies that never did collaborations before
were pretty open to me. They weren’t threatened. Maybe it’s just an Iowa
thing.”
While
for Tatsuya Takaku, creative director of Anglobal Ltd. — which is
supporting Mr. Snyder’s Japanese adventure — the Liquor Store concept
was the designer’s initial selling point, it was the prospect of
developing a new American designer for a market fixated on things with a
Made in the U.S.A. label that held the most appeal.
“As
Japanese, we are always eager to find another American designer,
because we’re fascinated by American stuff,” Mr. Takaku said. “Japanese
guys love Todd because he has such great basic offerings, but also
because he can recommend a tuxedo jacket with terry cloth sweatpants.”
They
apparently love him enough that, soon after his first store opened, he
opened a second in Osaka, with plans underway to expand to Kyoto and
Yokohama and other cities within the year.
“His
is the classic overnight success that’s not an overnight success,” said
Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of
America, who is relying on Mr. Snyder as one of the anchor designers for
the weeklong men’s wear presentations in New York this month.
“Todd
comes across like a very calm big brother,” Mr. Kolb said, adding that,
unlike certain critical darlings whose businesses sputter once the
initial hype has burned off, he is “mature and business focused, and
that’s a good thing.”
Men
of the millennial generation are in a “discovery phase” in their
relationship to fashion, said Mr. Snyder, probably the only designer in
the business to have spent his teenage summers detasseling corn. “They
want to discover you, and then they need to know you’ll stand the test
of time,” he said.
While the Japanese are the early adopters in the case of Mr. Snyder, it seems inevitable the homegrown market will follow.
“Todd
Snyder corresponds with the tastes of a Japanese young generation, in a
sense of making quite easy, relaxed, but at the same time quite
detailed clothing,” said Masafumi Suzuki, the editor of GQ Japan.
“That
is the attitude that rings the bell with a young Japanese man,” said
Mr. Suzuki, who could just as easily have been describing young
Americans.
7/9付けのNEW YORK TIMESに、Todd Snyderが大きく取り上げられました。
Todd Snyderブランドが、着実に日本市場で、認知されているといった内容です。
手前味噌ながら、私もJapan Creative Directorとして、インタビューを受けました。でもAnGlobal社のCreative Directorではないですけど。。。。（笑）
No comments:
Post a Comment