Todd Snyder opens Pitti Immagine 105 with punch

It’s a long way from a draper’s store in Iowa to the capital of the Renaissance, but Todd Snyder skillfully bridged that gap with a powerful show to open Pitti in Florence on Tuesday.
 
Known as the king of collabs in American menswear, Snyder smartly blended everything from Tuscan fabrics and Canadian arctic trapper ideas, to classy tailoring and even a dash of Vincent van Gogh.

Todd teaming up with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to include great van Gogh prints – from Provencal flowers to a blown-up image of desert boots – on silk shirts.
 
“Who would have there was a desert boot in the 1880s!” marveled Snyder, in a pre-show preview backstage inside the Stazione Leopolda, a disused railway station used by Pitti for major shows. Before Snyder caused confusion among Italian editors by referring to the museum as The Met. Causing the Italians to query, “What is The Mat?”

Linguistics aside, this was a clear-headed and focused collection by Snyder, and a very fine show backed up with tunes from Joy Division and Jaime Córdoba.
 
While his multiple looks from Woolrich – where he was recently appointed creative director of the heritage brand’s Black Label – added plenty of rugged mountaineering cool. Even including and wilderness aesthetic that seemed timed perfectly for this week in Tuscany. Landing in Florence this morning, one could only marvel at the Apennine Mountains dusted in snow, as temperatures plummeted below zero throughout Western Europe.
 
What’s best about Snyder is that he has the self-confidence on mash up Savile Row and self-made man; rugged Bear Grylls with matinee idol.
 
For evening, his debonair take on dinner jackets and tuxedos in creamy velvets – in petrol blue or soft rust – worked brilliantly with some faintly degrade cotton piqué dress shirts. In some smart styling by veteran American editor Jim Moore for Snyder. While his bold plaids, posh street shorts and bold boxy New England tailoring all clicked.
 
Todd started in fashion as a tailor’s assistant in Des Moines and designed outerwear for Ralph Lauren before a stint at J. Crew. His has been a career on a slow boil. But today in Italy, he looked like a new fashion star.
 
The show as the opening runway display in the three-day Pitti 105, the latest edition of the giant twice-yearly menswear salon, whose nerve center is the Fortezza da Basso, a huge medieval fortress in central north Florence.

 
Pre-show plenty of European critics had audibly questioned the choice of a commercial designer like Snyder to stage a show in Pitti – an honor reserved for either legendary designers or truly innovative creatives.
 
“When I was invited to Pitti, I was completely blown away, and exited and completely nervous. When I design my process always starts in Italy. Most of fabrics come from here, so I spent four week here working with craftsmen, passionate people who want to unearth something that has never been done before, where I could put a spin on,” explained Todd.
 
And today the American designer silenced his naysayers with his smart blend collabs – from Tricker’s leather super lug combat boots to John Hardy necklaces – accessorizing some great modernist mode. 
 
In a word, easily the best menswear collection from an American designer this decade.