Todd Snyder On Looking Backward To Go Forward | House of Craft

I must say that when I see all the faces I know now why I didn't retire because how can anybody retire from a passion I don't know our economy and the gender inequality will catch up as a brand we better be prepared for that last time I saw you were actually talking about watches that belong to your father yeah this is all your fault yeah you guys I said it in the video and in my intro thanks for bringing it up but this is all your fault I didn't care about Watchers until you guys put all these videos gaming the algorithm pretty much yeah Todd thanks so much for joining us this is truly a pleasure to to speak with and confront the person that's responsible for my smaller closet space and declining watch budget because I put probably far more money into your clothes than I do watches lately but uh yeah I'm I'm the same I mean sitting next to Ben I'm always like um what's what watch am I going to wear and he kind of got me hooked about 11 years ago yeah I can can I hop in for one second so for those who don't know there was something called the popup flea many years ago and it was a men's Weare meet up and I think the one where we first met was I think over on bleer Street potentially and I had a little booth that was just me and some old watches you had a slightly larger Booth slightly slightly larger Booth right next door uh so Todd and I have known each other when we were basically one or two mans uh and now now here we are on stage so it's always amazing to see the journey we I always love watching your ascent and it's just amazing um and of course you got me hooked as most people probably feel the same you kind of started tell well that's a such and such and I'm like but I would always text you and be like is this watch worth you know this so it's been just to have that turn into a commercial success likewise for sure so happy to have you here but Mark back to you um I like I said I'm I'm a big fan of your clothes I'm a a big fan of what you're doing to sort of bring a detail oriented take this is sort of I think become your career Arc is the attention to detail how have you worked to integrate that into all the brands that you've worked for and how does it not only inform the design that you do but the watches that you love well you know for me um I got into and thank you for all that um I got into fashion a long time ago I've been in the business like 30 years and I I always loved clothes so I I taught myself how to sew I worked in a Taylor uh shop when I was younger um I used to make my own shirts when I moved to to New York City about 30 years ago because I didn't have any money and I just really loved going to the fabric stores and finding this amazing fabric that you would typically see in designer and this is like 30 40 years ago and um I just like making stuff it was just like really the art of it and there's like you know there's so much detail that goes into garments and it's interesting cuz I would always play with the pattern and I would like experiment with the armhole being slightly dropped and I would play around with pleats and just kind of making sure that um there was always a nice drape to things um and that is really what I fell in love with with apparel was just playing around with fabric and coming up with new Silhouettes through you know the cutting of the Garment to the way I sell it to whatever and um yeah I I just kind of always appreciated the the details because for me and I always use the analogy of a watch you know we're not making a watch guys um when we're designing but it's true I mean you're always looking at I mean watch is incredibly detailed um but you know for me in fashion you know just looking at the slightest you know millimeter of like okay let's maybe pick this up a little bit to give it a little bit of different drape on the Garment or what have you or even just looking at Stitch detail is really important and those are the things are important to me I don't think the average customer really necessarily pays attention to all those details but when you find the ones I mean and you guys know this better than me when you find the ones that really are into the detail it's just really comforting cuz you know that the time you spent uh designing something or even just the way it fits uh is appreciated and um nothing's ever perfect you especially in apparel um but it's something I strive to to get to yeah and what where does that that understanding of of these details come from I mean you spent time at Ralph you worked at at J crew I mean you work with some of the greats can you talk a little bit about your experience with some of the guys behind those brands well J crew um back in '92 um I used to work in sportsware which included tailoring and outerwear so I got to work in a lot of different departments I got to work in sweaters and outwar and suiting that really it kind of got you know continued my kind of passion for that and then when I worked at Old Navy it was much more of a you true Factory of like making a lot of product and stuff I I worked there in the very very beginning when um there was only like four stores and I was like one of three designers um but it was great because it was like mickeey drexler's pet project and it took off like Gang Busters so I was able to like really witness how to grow a brand quickly um and that wasn't really so much about the craft per se but really getting into how something's made and I used to travel a lot to Asia um and I got to see how garments were made and work with factories and work with makers to make you know could make stuff look really good that was cheap and um I remember then I worked at Ralph again I worked at Ralph twice um and I was blown away because Old Navy would buy millions of units and because of that we were able to use the same quality we were using at Ralph and then when I when I got to Ralph the second time I was doing outware there under John vvos and that just really exploded my brain in so many great ways you know his love for fabric and his love for outerwear was always his favorite piece and so I got to play in outerware and and tailored sportsware which was for me it just really brought it home for me um and then when I went to J crew my last stint which was in 2005 to 2009 that's when I was able to put it all together and um kind of just my passion for not only making garments but like creating the environment that you sell garments in was really important to kind of Bring It All home right and if I may say that was kind of peak J crew that era those were the good old days of J crew thank you um yeah I I loved it there um it was uh we opened the liquor store in 2008 and I was like you know what I've got the formula figured out uh we had you know all the collaborations were through me I was brokering all those with you know timx to Redwing to Alden and I was like gosh I should really just go do this on my own and um that's what really gave me kind of the the confidence that I could do it and um after that I was like I gu just got to go do this on my own you mentioned the liquor store how do you take these moments or these these parts of your career and carry them with you to to something new well when I did the liquor store um it was really I mean another Mickey pet project um you know he really wanted to do something interesting in menw and it was music to my ears and my team's ears um and I just wanted it to be special I knew um I got a chance to work with Andy Spade who's um if nobody knows who he is he's a genius uh in in advertising but just anything creative he's just very creative um and it really showed me how to push the envelope and really take risks but do things that were really smart um Andy was very good at you know thinking about the whole lifestyle of men's wear I mean Andy Spade was Jack Spade Kate Spade um and he just was able to pull the whole narrative together and that was something I never thought about narrative and in men's wear I just I didn't think about the storytelling in it and that was always really important and so I've always been a sponge I've always worked with people that are incredibly talented and a lot of them still work with me today and I really try to surround myself with people that are you know smarter than me and usually have better tastes than me I really try to you know Aspire I know when I was working at J crew I brought in um Frank mjin from Ralph Floren I worked he and I worked together there and then also a guy named timma Hamilton who is now the head of um product at Nike um just really talented people Great Taste makers um and I knew that if I surrounded myself with kind of this community of of creatives it was going to allow me to do things like Frank's really good at furniture and interiors and Tim's really good at designing kind of uh product and I knew kind of building the entire kind of Lifestyle was going to bring people in and so I've always surrounded myself with people that are are better than me and and really try to bring them together so that we can do something new and different yeah I mean that's why I have I have Mark on stage I need people that are better than me all all the time no but I think it's interesting because the you know being able to evolve in that way but still be sort of referential to yourself is something that we see a lot in watches we also see it in I think some of the watches that you've done you've done watches with timx we see watches in in some of your stores and I think it's it's important to you know remember where you were and integrate it into part of the the history but so going back I we're both midwesterners so I'm from Wisconsin you're from Iowa and um I think I think a lot of people would say oh yeah you're the the carheart or the philson guys and like well you don't get much further than that you know I was I lived in a rural area and and how do you take your story was it were you in Iowa going through fabrics and doing these things and how do you take that story and evolve beyond what the the stereotype might be um well it was interesting when I was um and I always thought I was kind of weird being from Iowa and I liked fashion and um I remember and most people did too they're like what are you going to be and I'm like I'm going be a fashion designer and um I know what really kind of put it home for me and by the way Holston was from Iowa they um the movie had it all wrong they said he was from or the show they said he was from Indiana but apparently he was born in De Moine um little did I know but I remember when I was moving um from Iowa to New York and we were at my grandma's and like everyone's like what are you going to do what are you going to do I'm going to be a fashion designer and my grandma said oh that makes so much sense she goes you know Snider in Dutch means Taylor and I was like oh my God like I had no idea and for me that was everything I needed to hear and for my grandma to at least recognize and kind of validate that you know what that makes sense it just was enough at you know 21 22 years old to be like okay I'm ready moving to New York City you know which is you know in itself from Iowa is is crazy you know I know how that goes I know the response that you get from people yeah they're like you're what um I mean I love it I've been here 30 plus years and um yeah for me it was always just I've always kind of had humble routes I still go back to Iowa quite often It Centers me in a lot of ways because I'm able to I understand and I think that's what makes me good at what I do is I understand what the average guy um would wear but I also live in New York City and I know what guys aspire to wear and there's always a spectrum of you know you know guys that are either super traditional or guys that are super edgy um and just making sure that you're not to one or the other um is important having understandable relatable design that are modern but not you know from Crazy Town well walking back home and wearing something I even saw a meme about this recently where somebody was like you can't wear this when you walk the streets in Iowa people think that you're crazy but I mean it is a a thing when I go back to ro Wisconsin I'm I'm considering like okay how far outside the norm have I gotten are people going to think I'm I'm nuts and I think it is it is a consideration but I think you know do you feel like you're you're taste has evolved and the collective Taste of maybe the Midwest or or the average person has evolved to the point where you can go back and be yourself in both places or or is that a part of the fun of fashion is being a different person at a different time for a different audience yeah I mean I feel like depending on where I just got back from Tokyo um we were there launching our our wolch black label and that's my my favorite place on Earth to like go and just be different I was there three weeks ago and I agree I mean it was it's just amazing and I just love travel I think that I also got that from being in the midwest I just I love transplanting myself in different places and I've always thought design-wise I think of I mean I'm sure you guys do with watches like you know Paul Newman was the coolest dude out there and and he looked good whether he was riding a motorcycle whether he dressed up he just always looked unbelievable and this is before stylist you know this guy just I mean you all know he had the best taste in watches and although probably argue that he didn't like the watch anyway um but you know he always had the best cars he had the best um style and for me I think about that Persona and when I go to whether it's j Japan or the south of France or Palm Beach or New York City like how would how would that Persona dress in in that moment without losing who they are um and I think that for me is incredibly interesting as I design I'm always thinking about I love watching people I love you know just sitting somewhere and watching what everybody's wearing like just being in Japan it's just like overload and just seeing how they reinterpret American fashion is incredibly interesting um and I think that's why I've always been successful there is because I really root a lot of my design in authenticity and whether I'm doing a collaboration with Redwing or Alden like they covet that stuff and I think they also love the respect I give the brand um when I'm working with them I'm always trying to represent a certain authenticity to it so I'm not changing the entire thing how much of that going to the Japan thing I was actually I wanted to ask you about this because there's the whole Amur thing in Japan and they're they're obsession with the American traditional and there's sort of sort of this idea actually in photography of I'm a photographer and there was a person who wrote in photography Theory there's there's the Stu the studium the thing that is technically correct and then the term was the punctum the thing that wounds you and and the Japanese are so great at the studium the like all the little details but what is it about then like the feel whether it's I I want to get to watches at some point but whether it's design whether it's watches what what is it about sort of the feel that is hard to convey in words that makes it so special um well to be honest with you I was really nervous this trip because I hadn't been for like 5 years and I was doing this W um uh being the creative director and and I know how much they study Brands and I was so nervous to present this because I'm like oh gosh they're they're going to rip me as just shreds um because I really did something completely different I I was I wanted you know everybody knows wool for an American brand based in Pennsylvania woolly jackets da d d da but I really wanted to modernize it and I wanted it to be considered amongst the the stone islands of the world among claes of the world so I really kind of said you know let's up the ante and I I always use um watches and cars as my analogy and kind of I and this one specifically was kind of built off of um the the car was a Defender and I just thought the Defender was like the perfect intersection of you know utility and luxury and having the Heritage and having the street appeal and having kind of that lux element and I felt that's what that's what w needed and it was actually similar to from a watch perspective and I'm not going to remember the name of it you will know it what's that really cool watch that's like I want to say it's essence or something like that it's got that crazy yeah crazy watch I mean I oh my God someday If Ever I think it's one of the coolest watches out there but what I love about it it feels very analog but at the same time it's so modern and that to me getting those two at the same time is almost impossible and the balance of that watch to me really kind of epitomized what I was trying to get to with wrid so I'm hoping I got there I don't speak very good Japanese but um I'm hoping that they respected and uh like what I did and so you know kind of double clicking on that a little bit I think you make a good point like a Defender you could drive to a black tie event and it would be right in line with everything else with a 911 or a Mercedes or anything like that when you design is that the aesthetic you're looking for something that is somewhat casual and rugged but can be worn to the the most elegant uh events yeah I mean I try to I mean not everything is is 100% that way but as I as I think about the whole brand I I try to think of it that way you know if you come to one of our stores you can get everything from a tuxedo all the way down to a sweatshirt or a sneaker and um I look at apparel and fashion as an investment for men I really think about um you know the jacket you're wearing could be something um you'll have 5 10 years from now I I I did um the jacket you're wearing I've wanted one for about 5 10 years it feels like and I finally got one so yeah it looks good on it's a good color that's my favorite uh my favorite color too I I have it I have the S CH chore code as well from in the same color I double Olive it's good um yeah Olive is kind of our signature and when I designed that coat it was I did it about 10 years ago and it's still to this day it's it's people's favorite item and so number one I want things that kind of last a long time stylistically but then also can be worn in multiple ways so if we can just because and you know this was not premeditated I'm not standing up and turning around if that's what you're going to ask I won't ask you to do that but can you walk us through this Cod I can you walk us through the details that you really love about this I can take it off if you do need it um well what's great about this cat I mean first of all it's made in Italy what I love most about the cat is the fact that it has a very luxurious hand to it it's made of a calf split Italian Suede and um it's rugged but refined and again it's always hard to have just exactly exactly like you rugged I didn't say it somebody in our audience said it I was you can tell all your friends now I'm rugged but refin anyway $20 um but but it's really that blending of it and you know thinking about everything to the Snaps are made of like a you know a gunmetal finish to it and just so that it isn't too bright but still has you know little shine to it um it's unlined except for you know in the sleeves um and you know it's something you'll have in your in your wardrobe for you know at least 10 years it's um like I said I designed it 10 years ago and we continue to it's actually one of our best selling items in the in the brand if not the best selling item no I thought about getting one for a while and then I was then I get sort of analysis paralysis of colors and stuff like that I mean there's so so many of these things I mean when is this sort of I was going to ask you this later but sort of one item in one watch that you think is the most versatile or the thing that you feel most at home in that you could put on every day I know you love love Champion I own a lot of the champion and sweatshirts as well I mean is it is it that is it this jacket and then what's the watch that that does the same for you um my watch that I I mean I I rotate um thanks to Ben he's created a problem good for something you know yeah yeah h i mean I bought um a 1976 Omega speed master from from you and it's still my favorite watch it's like um has a lot of sentimental value um and my wife was born in 76 and there just like all these things that kind of um go back to that um so that is that is definitely my favorite and I I changed the the bands on it I have like the I don't know what you call it the the oyster band on it or the metal band um but I typically wear NATO wristband and um you know for me it's good cuz I can switch it out I I'd have a bunch of your suede bands and everything it's made it really awesome to be able to kind of change it with what you want to wear um and so that's my go-to and then as far as apparel um it's it's probably that jacket I would say not just cuz you're wearing it but I I will say I don't think I've ever felt more self-conscious than you explaining what I'm wearing and everybody I could tell everybody's staring at me being like oh what so and I appreciate that that got me out of my comfort zone for sure I'm not modeling anytime soon but you look good in it well yeah thank you no I'm definitely going to I I like it even more now knowing that somehow we gravitated towards the same thing so do you see yourself in the watch space evolving or do you find yourself moving back towards the things that are comfortable or are they do you see them as two different things how you're evolving your career and your your Style with watches your taste and watches watch is interesting I I've been kind of moving um I mean I I definitely have a problem so meaning I have too many watches and I'm trying to fit them in so I'll first admit that I know this isn't therapy but could be yeah um I've I've really kind of become obsessed now with like the unimatic of the world and um there's a new watch called era I think it's called AE R A sure really cool just I mean that thing is like I mean every line on it they studied like the the bezel and and the Crystal on it and it's like smooth as heck and we might be doing something together soon but I'm I'm really appreciating because I do think what happens in watches and the same things happening in fashion where it becomes so sought after and then all of a sudden The Last 5 Years you can't get a watch and it's like there's lines and you put your name in blah blah blah it leaves and had same thing happened in sneakers and where sneakers were all the rage and still are but Nike and the big Brands got a little Arrogant with like oh nope we're not going to sell we we sell Nike in our stores and they were getting really arrogant about giving you the distribution but they left the door completely wide open for the on sneakers and the hokas and the whatever and same thing with me I got to a point where I'm like okay I can't wait for these Nikes they'll send me like 12 pair I blow through them in a like in a day literally and I said why don't we just start making our own shoe and you know this is one of ours um and we're selling this made in Italy as well as we sell a Nike and what a great way you know you buying a shoe that you're going to have for a long time but what a great way to like have something that's even better than something that's you know made in Asia um but they left the doors open and I feel like the same thing has happened in the watch Arena where you're seeing the ematics of the world and people are like that's a really beautiful watch it's well made and it it it has you know and guys are willing to try something different than just kind of like the the big masters of the world uh which is for me exciting to see I know it probably freaks a lot of people out in the watch industry but you know it's so insol and it's hard to get into yeah it's the way watches are sold is kind of broken right now it's it's been broken for decades but you know I would agree I mean unimatic is a brand that we've collaborated with many times I probably own five of them uh and you know I'm wearing a vintage Daytona today I'll wear something you know expensive tomorrow but like on the weekends I wear ematics all the time and I think it's funny cuz like the if you talk to somebody from Rolex or patch they probably have never heard of unimatic until one day they might be you know on the wrist of their their child their daughter or something like that and it's uh they're doing amazing things over there really greated and that that for me is exciting because I I love design I love um looking at things that are just really wellmade and just I mean especially in watches because it's so so small and you just a little bit of a hair can really make a difference between a great design and a bad design and their attention to detail I think is really incredible and just there's a minimalist to their design but then they still have that rugged kind of tool look to it and it's hard to I mean it's hard to do something new and different and stand out and that's what I think they've done a great job so you know hats off to them and you know for me that's what gets me excited because you you see an evolution I mean I certainly would take any you know vintage Rolex any day um but to see kind of a new breed and I think it will shake it up a little bit because I for a long time had been talking to and I think I told you about this I was talking to Hamilton Watches about doing something and and they just were very no this is this is our brand this is they were very very strict and very much you know I'm like well Hamilton you guys really aren't I mean they do a great quality watch but they're not doing anything that to me they do some really beautiful Heritage remakes but they weren't doing doing anything with the hype I mean I know you guys did something with them and that was the first time they probably ever gone out outside their comfort zone and it was incredible but they could really use this kind of injection of of modern thinking and and just the way they do business would be I think benefit them yeah yeah I mean you just said something that's interesting you said it's really hard to do something new right so how do you do something new designing men's wear when you have so many great Brands like a J crew like a Ralph like all these things that everybody know knows how do you define yourself versus those guys which are look I mean they're they're adjacent you guys are adjacent to each other you know each other obviously but how do you differentiate how do you do something new well I try try to do it through fabric I try to do it through the make um like the jacket I'm wearing is uh an Italian um twill it's like a gabardine we make it in Portugal um you know you kind of if you look through the history books and if you look through what was in fashion 30 years ago 40 years ago it's everything kind of has an interesting cycle to it um and it's always about kind of knowing when to bring back that look um I'm always looking at vintage I'm always looking at um the past to really go forward which I know sounds kind of odd in in fashion but that's it's really what happens a lot is so it's more about the silhouette of it taking a a design and modernizing it with a new material um you know not to pick on the gentleman with that awesome beautiful sweater on but that's a beautiful sweater yours yeah I know so I'm going to pick on you but um it's gorgeous um but that typically was made in the ' 50s it was like an old style um that you would you know if you watch old movies that that's was the style back then but it was made with a it called bandlon which was like a synthetic um really kind of scratchy it didn't wear well and we made that in a cotton silk so an Italian cotton silk and it's just it wears beautiful um it's never too hot it's never too you know it it doesn't it's not itchy by any means it's just a very luxurious yarn so it's like how do you I my favorite word in fashion is expositions like how do you take two things that were not really stereotypically meant to be bring them together and make Harmony that's really what I try to do is I'm trying to take two things and bring them together that you don't typically think of um I always think of like my Dad's closet um and what he used to wear how do you take something that's kind of out of fashion and bring it back into fashion that's always my favorite thing to do is taking something that's almost so cliche and being like you might be interesting to do that like this used to be they they would call this look like a leisure suit and that was always like a oh he's wearing a leisure suit literally this is what a leisure suit used to be and now you're seeing guys wearing this out um you see him wearing it you know on the red carpet um but this stereotypically was considered a leisure suit so I think we have a little bit of time I know we have a a couple people wearing things so I don't think we I don't know if we need feedback or we we do inperson reviews or customer I I I mean I I'll request as a 6' s person if you want to ever consult on bringing tall sizes to the lineup you know like that's um it's coming okay well thank goodness I mean I still wear it and I still works but that was my but if we have any any questions I mean about whether it's about design fashion the watches that you've you've loved one in the front row here thank you um I'm a big car guy and you mentioned the the defender um have there been any other cars that have influenced your work or have been at the intersection of fashion watches whatever Happ you yeah my um I actually did a collaboration about six years ago with um it's a company called fj.com FJ the Land Cruiser um and they rebuild uh trucks and they get donors from Colombia and they do all the work there and they import them and I did this custom uh version of my own um did like three or four of them um did a slate gray we took a Porsche slate gray and did a did a truck out of it that was fun we did like Redwing leather interior and um we did a bag with lff um that was kind of GIF with purchase with it but that that to me was the ultimate um and we're actually working with a another maker of uh Defenders not maker but like a rebuild of Defenders that will be coming out in about six months so should be fun yeah in the front row here oh hi how's it going thank you for calling out your sweater I really appreciate it yeah sorry uh my question is actually about all of your collaborations so from J crew to Todd Snider you know I think your sort of selection and choice has been always like I mean I'll speak for myself but like perfectly on the mark like how do you think about like who you reach out to and like why you do the collaborations that you do and how it informs brand building for yourself given that you're also giving like shelf space to like somebody else well you know for me when um I was working at J crew I kind of got the idea I I mean I got really the idea from my trips to Japan like seeing like J Juni Watson ABI and all the greats they were always doing these cool collaborations and I thought wow this is really smart like a great way to kind of build brand awareness at the same time doing something cool and um I started doing it J crew and I knew when I was going out on my own I wanted to do something really impactful and nobody had ever worked with champion other than like Stuy and um Supreme it was always kind of a street culture and I thought what a great way for me to kind of get into my own brand and for a long time Champion was probably half of our sales and um now I do it more for just for fun you know for me it's really great to work with these old Heritage Brands like I didn't wool came to me a couple years ago and said you know would you do a collaboration and I was like no like you've done it with Teddy at um Al and I know they worked with u Mark McNary who's another amazing Men's Designer and I just didn't see how I fit in and I just come off of an LOL Bean collab which I was the first designer they ever worked with which I didn't know at the time either um but they kept after me and then when I started looking into it and realizing they were 200 years old I was like this is kind of like the the biggest I've ever worked with and the oldest I've ever worked with and I really liked the challenge of like how do I change it you know the stuff that Teddy's done in his own brand and with others is just incredible and it's kind somewhat intimidating like how do I top that um but then I started thinking about it and I that's when the the defender hit me and I was like that's what you need to do you need to do today's Defender but in apparel and the challenge of doing that of course it tor I tortured myself for a year because I'm like not good enough not good enough we did a fashion show in Italy that was amazing um and the challenge of doing it was was it was something I just had to push myself to get there it's it's because it pushes me to think outside of my normal box you know typically when I'm designing I'm thinking more soral and when I do Woolrich I was able to think about the active side of things and you know for me the two reasons why I do it number one it it gives me access you know to do things and gives me permission to do it um but then the second reason why I do it it just really kind of is an authentic way for me to do an outdoor brand versus me coming up with Todd Snider outdoor but that that's the big reason why I do them is because of those those things so I'm going to throw actually to a colleague in the back here who is I would say one of my big style Inspirations personally Jeff Hillard over here I'll be leaving shortly after this um thank you Mark uh Todd thanks for this uh my question is around you know it's a very competitive men's Weare landscape and I think Todd Snider is one of the few that's been no doubt a very commercial success and there's very few of those at this point in time but you also do a much more directional show in men's wear line and I'm curious how that's kind of informed what you do I guess in your Mainline collection that's a great question I for a long time um I've always done shows and you know I would always struggle with like what am I doing these shows they're expensive um like my customer doesn't really pay attention to a show um and I kind of during the pandemic we stopped doing them and I I was kind of like do we really need it our business was on fire we we crossed the100 million threshold during it and I'm kind of looking at the team like gosh you know we're we're selling out of everything and we're not we haven't done a show in four years and they're you know they're expensive they're could run anywhere from half a million dollars to a million dollars to do a show and then I'm like well our customer doesn't really pay attention to that so why and then I got invited to do the Pomo show in Florence and I was like holy this is huge this is amazing I got to do it I can't not do it you know it's like basically you know it's like Mecca from Menor and so I very quickly said yes I'll do it and um I immediately went to Italy I went to Italy four or five times that year and it got me back to the real Roots it reminded me of the kid who moved in New York City that would go to the fabric stores and just pull what I loved not thinking about what sells not thinking about any of that just thinking about what inspires me and the reason why I got into fashion I was you know this was the ' 80s 90s Armani was big back then and um it was all the Italian greats and going to Italy kind of brought me back to that whole moment of like oh my gosh I'm here what a lucky thing I get to do I mean I tortured myself for a year just like okay God I got to and this is Italy and this is the world stage and every editor on the planet is there and you're like I'm going to get ripped to shreds and of course that's what drives me so it's always this kind of push push pull thing that I deal with um and and I did it and I and I worked with and I kept telling myself just work do what you know do what you love and I kept going back to these amazing Weavers in Italy and working with them and saying I want to do something different I want something that's like a silk Barcade but still rustic okay and then the Weaver is like what if we take silk and mix it with linen and put some wool in it it gives it kind of a push pull and I'm like exactly and all of those things and we did this you know beautiful corduroy that's uh it's really rugged but still has a drape to it and you know everything kind of came together but I also remember just working with others and digging really deep and going through their archives and pulling out things that I felt would go together and not necessarily think about the commercial aspect um um and then and then we did the show and the show was incredible it's it's still one of my favorite things it's it really got me into the craft it got me into why I do what I do because it was more about the art of it less about the commercial part of it and I think I'm lucky enough that I have a really really amazing business and you know a lot of people buy my clothes but there's always a consumer out there that wants something that's a little bit different and we're not going to sell thousands of them but we're going to sell maybe 20s and 30s of and so that really informs the whole ecosystem I almost look at it as like a pyramid and you have all this you know Pinnacle product that trickles down into things that are more commercial over time you know I remember you know the the big Styles right now are are kind of like these leisure suits and things we we showed them we didn't do runway but we we did a lookbook about 2 3 years ago and we just started throwing stuff out there that was a little bit a little bit crazy um and then sure enough you would see the progression um fashion sometimes sticks over time and sometimes it doesn't and it's important not to have everything I'm showing be things that guys can't relate to and it needs to be relatable it needs to be um somewhat under over time um but the show just really got me back to that core reason of Designing for the sake of design versus the sake of selling so thank you so much big fan um can you talk about uh your collaboration with uh Weiss watches oh yeah um another great brand and again it's that doing something that looks familiar that is still new is probably one of the hardest things to do and they I think they did a really good job of taking like old military watches but doing them in ever so subtle modern way for me it was really interesting but it's really fun to kind of play in other people's sandbox and really kind of get to do something at that level because I've done plenty of Timex watches which are incredible um as well but to be able to do something that's a little bit more luxury without you know being crazy luxury I always enjoy doing thanks ad um you've been in New York 30 years so you've seen basically the start of official Street Wear into what it is now how much did you kind of feel almost pressure potentially from this street wear Market kind of coming in versus inspiration as well uh you've kind of seen it now get more solidified into a mix of men's wear and and street wear with folks like Teddy but uh Curious to hear your thoughts from from seeing Supreme in the 9s up until up until now yeah I mean that's been really interesting because I feel like they don't really play by their roles which is good you know that's what makes them kind of irreverent and you know kind of badass is they're not necessarily you know they don't do shows they don't do there's certain things they don't do um but that's why for me I watch everything I'm always like Stuy to me was just amazing I remember in the early '90s like what the heck is that and a lot of my buddies lived in California and um San Francisco and I would find out about all these cool Street Brands and you know whether they were skateboarding or what have you they just didn't give a crap about any anyone or anything and or about the rules which I loved and I I think I've always used that and not that I'm trying to be that at all but that is fashion to some degree is like how do you break the rules how do you break the mold so you're not just you know doing the same thing over and over again um but it's really exciting to see Brands like Al come come to life and see what they do every year because there's not a lot like when I started in menswar 15 years ago there was probably like 50 of us all doing men's trying to get noticed there's not so many of us around anymore so now it's more you know people like me people like Teddy um even the oth what's going on there it's need to see the evolution because it it all comes and goes as soon as you start seeing every guy wearing a sneaker you know it's time to move off sneakers soon as you start seeing everybody wearing a new era cap you know it's time to move away from it but it evolves it changes it's never just goes away but it's it's kind of the mix of it and I've always used the analogy of um you know great chefs you know great Architects all the ingredients are known it's how you put it together that makes it new so I'm always looking for that new Edge that new kind of spirit that new mix that really kind of inspires me uh as as you mentioned Fashion's very cyclical things come and and go whether you're choosing patterns from the 50s or something you see on Pinterest today have you developed a template in terms of how you forecast your future designs um for me it all starts with travel I I travel everywhere and I'm always thinking about what are my influences and literally I have a mood board I start every season I start with a watch I start with a car I start with a place where I start with a piece of art and I think about I all of those things that go together there's always architecture involved um you know for me you know because ultimately we end up going and shooting that product somewhere so not why not go shoot it shoot it at Ghost Ranch or somewhere like that uh New Mexico I'm always thinking about what are all those pieces and that has gotten a lot easier for me I used to like you know try to think completely outside the box and all of that and once I started thinking about all those pieces there's so many amazing watches out there and amazing cars and amazing places to go visit that that's my inspiration and so that's what really kind of grounds all my design is really thinking about and it's really like what is Paul Newman wearing actually Paul Newman and S Sydney potier po potier I can not French but anyway the the movie they did together I don't know if anybody ever watched it um it was a French movie anyway both of them have incredible style and I'm always thinking about that era and how you know it's almost like like a you're creating a movie you're creating kind of a a wardrobe or costume for these characters well Todd thank you so much for making time I really appreciate it I appreciate knowing that I've got the right coat from for the next 5 to 10 years so thank you so much yeah thank you so much and thanks for everybody that joined us today and uh see you at the next one I guess this awesome thank you guys