11 February 2013

Todd Snyder's "Badass"


A while back I met with a blog editor.  His boss asked him to take me to lunch to discuss working with him.  The editor, 25,  took me to a sandwich joint, grabbed a tray and proceeded through the line where he paid for his lunch leaving me to pay for mine.  Not a big deal, I thought. It's tough everywhere, but...  if this was the companies idea of being taken to lunch...I'm grateful they didn't invite me to dinner.

I joined him at a table where he was typing on his phone.  Without looking up, he smiled and said, "I'm tweeting that I'm having lunch with the Trad."  I told him I didn't really think a lot of people should know that when he announced, "Finished!" and put his phone away.  We unwrapped our sandwiches, he popped a straw in his drink and I asked what he wanted me to write for the blog. "Uh, you're too old to write for our blog," he said.




Todd Snyder's "Rebel Gentlemen" is younger but it's also like trying to kick start a motorcycle on a cold November morning.  Despite macho goods of shaved beaver, throat latches, pony hair peacoat, horsehide and thermal cashmere, this show needed an electric starter.  Not that anyone has to see you press the starter button. 




Sometimes, if it's a real cold morning, that kick starter kicks back.  You look around to see if anyone's watching and if it's clear, you just push the button and she starts right up.  Simple really.  But some folks just kick and kick and kick. 



Snyder went for beaver in big way. The shawl shape reminds me of Uncle Fester's collar...the kind you'd attach a leash to.  Not sure it adds anything  -- like the tilted breast pocket.  That's an interesting Moto jacket next door with quilted shoulder but the tuxedo pants look they came from a Citadel winter uniform.



But it's the young  who  "...bring the bravado to the ballroom" by wearing tuxedo pants with a motorcycle jacket.



In real life, this looks even more like split pea soup.  All of the models were channeling a "badass" attitude.  "Outlaw" is also used to describe the collection along with, vintage shop, iconic, forward-leaning, re-engineered, Dylan, straight Americana, midnight blue, bravado and Serge Gainsbourg.  Sounds like a Tumbler.


Up close and at a distance, it's mostly flat with little warmth.  Geez, it looked like a Tumbler.


Split pea again but an elegant look where the starter button looks to have been pushed. A shame the jacket doesn't cover the bulge -- Maybe Bruce likes it that way.



Pitti Uomo sneaked in.
















I'm too old for Todd Snyder.  I'm too old for anyone who would use, "Badass" in anything.  I once worked for a guy who blurted out that he'd never cheat on his wife.  Right outta the blue.  "I'd never cheat on my wife," he said.  Know what?  He was cheating on his wife.  If someone tells you they're honest?  Chances are good they're not.  Anytime a man has to tell you what he is...chances are...he isn't. Think about that the next time you wanna wear a motorcycle jacket and tuxedo pants. 

15 comments:

  1. Would love to hear how the rest of that lunch meeting played out.

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  2. Yeah - what DID you say to the wanky little herbert of an editor then?

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  3. I once played on a rugby team with a kid from the Citadel. We had a falling out over his calling a homeless man the N word.
    That collection must be awesome because I'm not sure I would wear any of it.

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  4. Bro- This is better with the soundtrack -- if you were able to find out...

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  5. They wanted to "take you to lunch" and then did not pick up the tab at a sandwich joint requiring sliding a tray along the line...no wonder those tools incorporate lines like: "When gentlemen were outlaws and vice versa." When was that exactly?
    Also, I thought a "cafe racer" was a modified bike and not a jacket one can "pluck" form a vintage shop. Tin t=you should have headed for the door when he was using his smart phone at the table...or maybe the kid adhered to the notion that he is in a time when gentlemen were rude...
    Hence, I will stick with my 25 year old goatskin leather jacket from LL Bean and my Lee jeans and Orvis 3/4 length wool and Eddie Bauer shearling...end of rant...something about that sandwhich just raised my hackles.

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  6. Tin-Tin,

    Was his Fluffernutter sandwich served on artisanal multi-grain bread? And didn't he appreciate that you were wearing your KISS Destroyer t-shirt ironically? Kids these days!

    Douglas Philadelphia

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  7. Your last paragraph summed it all up Tin Tin. I can not improve on it! Desperate designing.

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  8. That stuff doesn't look as absurd as most...that's the best I can do, though.

    Why DID the little sh*t "do lunch" with you anyway?

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  9. When there's a special language for it, I know I'm too old or too young or too-something, usually too 'not on-trend'.

    Love your description of the split pea soup cardigan. So literal. No way I could buy that, even if I wanted to now!

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  10. I see boring clothes, nothing new. Are we supposed to like these clothes? DMW

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  11. Love that blog kid story. God help the future. The give-away there was that he was a "blog editor." That's rich. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that good ol' fashioned writers are now called "content providers." That title automatically signifies a paucity of both content and the providing of it.

    Serge Gainsburg? A fine memory of scoring a second-hand album in Paris 13 years ago when no one else under 60 knew who he was.

    What's with all the viewers wearing coats? Was it freezing in there? Where's a coat check when you need one?

    -DB

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  12. Andy- No, the editor was not associated with Todd Snyder. Another company and I'm not saying who. Not here. My new book, "I Didn't Move To Manhattan To Meet A Park Ranger" will be out Winter of 2013.

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  13. I blame it on the parents. Seriously, did this jerk's ma and pa never teach him elementary good manners. It is a strange dichotomy in the US, this kind of gauche behavior and then at the other extreme the over elaborate courtesy of the have a nice day variety that one often encounters when conducting minor transactions.

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  14. My eyes started dry-heaving before I could finish that press release. I also notice the writer says "suiting" when he probably means "suits," a lot of people do that nowadays.

    -Corey

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  15. Unimpressive clothes/rude behavior/25!!! Yuck! Actually, I'm around people like this all day long, but at least they're on my turf in the library! I do like their energy, which I steal, but I wish they would GROW UP. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear this crew yapping on their cell phones between classes with their parents. "What's the difference between an antihistimine and a decongestent?" "Can you make my dental appointment?" "I love you, Mom."

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