EXCLUSIVE: Todd Snyder to Return to the Runway at Pitti Uomo in ‘Designer Showcase’

Todd Snyder is returning to the runway. Nevertheless it’s not going to be throughout New York Vogue Week — as a substitute, it’ll be in Florence throughout Pitti Uomo.

Snyder might be spotlighted in what Pitti Immagine Uomo organizers are calling a “designer showcase” on the opening evening of the present.

Snyder will current his menswear assortment on Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. native time on the Stazione Leopolda. Pitti runs from Jan. 9 to 12 on the Fortezza da Basso in Florence.

Pitti stated it chosen Snyder to be highlighted as a result of he’s “thought-about by business insiders as probably the most influential American menswear designers of his era.” Snyder follows different prime American designers and types who’ve been featured at Pitti up to now together with Thom Browne in 2009, Brooks Brothers in 2018 and Telfar in 2020.

For Snyder, who has spent his profession in menswear and attends Pitti Uomo each season, that is the end result of a dream.

“Pitti is the start of the menswear cycle and I’m going yearly,” he stated. “The whole menswear group is there, so to point out at Pitti is an honor and a dream.”

However the deal was a very long time coming. Snyder started to consider it a number of years in the past and he began to have conversations with Raffaello Napoleone, chief government officer of Pitti Immagine, a couple of 12 months in the past, which led to the deal to have Snyder present on the one hundred and fifth version of the present in January. Already, Pitti has stated that Bologna, Italy-based Luca Magliano would be the visitor designer and the British model S.S. Daley can even be featured.

Snyder, who based his model in 2011, held his final present 4 years in the past. For a lot of seasons, he was one of many solely menswear designers to point out in New York, however as soon as he made the choice to cease wholesaling his assortment to focus on his direct-to-consumer efforts, it didn’t make monetary sense to proceed runway exhibits.

Snyder, whose enterprise will surpass $100 million in gross sales this 12 months, at present operates 15 shops across the U.S. with two others slated to open within the spring. Inside these shops, Snyder stated, are third-party manufacturers that complement his assortment and that’s the explanation he continued to attend Pitti, to find the precise companions for his retailer.

Now he has his sights set on reentering the wholesale market and increasing internationally. Early on within the model’s life, Snyder had a profitable enterprise in Japan the place he operated stand-alone shops. However in 2015, his firm was acquired by American Eagle Outfitters for $11 million and by the subsequent 12 months, the choice was made to give attention to the U.S. and shut the Japanese shops.

He stated he anticipates that displaying at Pitti will help jump-start the plan to begin wholesaling once more. “We ship internationally, however from the U.S.,” he stated. “We’ll be seeking to open [accounts] however we need to begin in a small means — gradual and surgical — and with the precise companions.”

He stated step one will in all probability be so as to add European retailers, each brick-and-mortar and e-commerce-only accounts. “Europe to me is the constructing block to international progress. It’s scary, nevertheless it’s thrilling, too.”

He stated he has the total help of Jay Schottenstein, the CEO of American Eagle, who was the first catalyst for his firm’s buy of the Todd Snyder model. Schottenstein attends Pitti himself with a group yearly. Snyder now reviews on to Schottenstein.

Snyder’s participation at Pitti can be key to the commerce present, which has been working to recuperate its full energy for the reason that pandemic compelled it to go digital.

In response to Napoleone: “I met Todd Snyder in New York a couple of 12 months in the past, and through that lengthy and nice dialog we each spontaneously agreed that it could be good for him to make his long-awaited return to the catwalk at our worldwide males’s style and life-style occasion. This venture can be Pitti’s recognition of an extended and sensible profession, characterised by the power to continuously renew [himself] in tune with the spirit of the time, remaining trustworthy to an concept of contemporary class welded to the values of sustainability.”

He added that by scheduling Snyder to point out on the primary day, it “opens the calendar of occasions of an version that we have now constructed to be sturdy, dynamic and filled with inspirations for your entire sector, contained in the Fortezza and within the metropolis.”