If one asks Todd Snyder what avenues he has embraced to reinvent the Woolrich DNA, he comes up with an unlikely but effective comparison, pointing to automotive and the reinvention of the Land Rover Defender a few years back.
“It had everything, that utility with luxury and it had street with modernity, that was always like a blend of all these things,” the American designer said about the Land Rover model, while walking through the Woolrich showroom where he unveiled his sophomore Black Label collection for the brand. “And the heritage has always been a constant.…I thought about all those things. And like, how the Defender was reinvented. That’s my North Star,” he said.
The great outdoors have been ingrained in Woolrich’s roots since its foundation in Pennsylvania 194 years ago, but have rarely been worked into the luxe mountaineering vibe Snyder’s spring collection evoked — tending to skew toward performance.
Snyder’s men — standing amid a forest-like set for the presentation — were trail runners and hiking enthusiasts who may just want the finest cashmere Buffalo check overshirts to toss over the shoulders when reaching the mountaintop. Ripstop fabrics worked into cargo pants and textured parkas gave the fisherman of the northwest Pacific coast a Linus blanket to match his cool utilitarian vest that speaks much about the brand’s roots to today’s youth. Snyder tossed in some handsome cotton knits, with abstract spray prints that looked almost like tie-dye, and botanical patterns — part foliage and part camouflage — on cargo shorts and field jackets with blown-up pockets.
“Call it ‘wanderluxe’ or ‘rugged luxury’,” Snyder said. No matter the label one wants to attach to it, in the span of just two seasons, the designer has managed to place Woolrich under a different light.