The New York designer’s third collection for the outerwear brand is sure to delight Gen Z customers and resonate with their vibrant style!
After channeling luxe mountaineering for the first couple of seasons at the helm of the upscale Woolrich Black Label line, Todd Snyder went down a more utilitarian root for fall.
Conjuring a youthful vibe that will likely get a thumbs up from the gorpcore-loving Gen Z, he nodded to Woolrich’s legacy in performance, spotlighting a different facet of the journey he has been charting since the appointment.
“Every season, I get more and more excited about the collection and designing it, because there is such a big, vast, archive that Woolrich has over the last 200 years, and every season becomes like another chapter, another kind of opening of the vault,” the New York-based designer said on a phone call a few days before the brand’s presentation in Milan.
Northern Europe’s volcanic and glacial landscapes served as an inspiration, their hard winter temperatures often taken as examples of the endurance and warmth of Woolrich’s key outerwear pieces, including the signature Arctic Parka.
The patch-pocketed outerwear and roomy cargo pants, the mid-layer shells worn beneath oversized reinventions of field jackets and atop chunky knits could have been drawn from the closet of a very cool arctic rescuer.
Literal cues to Iceland’s views could be found in the tie-dye glacier prints on the oversized down parka, the frozen lake print on a relaxed field jacket crafted from three-layer, bonded wool and even in the Buffalo check shirt featuring shimmering fibers woven into the garment.
Snyder seems to be enjoying the manipulation of fabrics, dyeing techniques and coatings, letting them define entire looks, as was the case with the windbreaker with patch pockets cropped at the waistline and done in flocked nylon to look like a camouflage of sorts, in both olive green and orange. It was paired with a turtleneck and chocolate brown parachute pants.
He tossed in tactile cardigans and turtlenecks, as well as cashmere shirt jackets that looked warm and luxurious even from afar, rounding off the season’s focus on inventive outerwear.
“I think it’s the continuation of the collection, it’s just still exploring and always kind of pushing and pulling between utility and luxury,” Snyder said.
