Todd Snyder and Friends Step Up to Celebrate Pride
Growing up in Iowa, Todd Snyder didn’t have much interaction with the gay community. But after moving to New York City more than two decades ago to take up a career in fashion, that all changed.
Most of his team and a lot of his friends are gay and Snyder wanted to celebrate that community on the 50th anniversary this summer of the Stonewall Uprising and the start of the Pride movement.
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“As a New Yorker now with an amazing staff, over half of which are gay, I wanted to do something meaningful,” he said. “My team is very important to me and we support each other’s values.”
So he created a capsule collection and invited some of his friends to appear in a campaign to promote that “seminal milestone in the history of New York City,” according to the invite.
Snyder took a space at Root Studios in Chelsea and his friends including Billy Porter and Adam Porter-Smith, Richard Haines, Frank Muytjens, Jenna Lyons, Steven Kolb, Eric Rutherford, Dominique Jackson and others turned out to be filmed and photographed.
The still photos were shot by Ryan Pfluger and the videos by Rick Rodgers.
The cast donned Champion T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts, New Balance shoes and New Era hats that Snyder designed incorporating the Gay Pride rainbow graphics. “I danced,” said Ned Munroe, chief global design officer for Hanesbrands, which owns Champion, “to disco — Donna Summer, of course.” Others shared their personal stories.
The Pride collection will be sold at the Todd Snyder store as well as online beginning May 7. The photos and videos will be posted online as well as in the store and the catalog.
Proceeds from the initiative will benefit the Stonewall Monument on behalf of the National Parks Service.
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