Todd Snyder landed in Music City.
The designer has opened a 2,700-square-foot store at 1212 12th Avenue South in the city’s trendy 12South neighborhood. The area also features stores by denim brand Imogene + Willie, women’s contemporary label Emerson Grace, jewelry brands Judith Bright and Hart, and a Flea Style hat shop.
The Nashville unit marks the 21st Todd Snyder store to open in the U.S. It will be followed shortly by a door in Newport Beach, Calif., slated for a soft opening next week, and in Easton, Ohio, in early July.
Although Snyder has been on a retail roll of late, he said the Nashville store is special.
“When I used to sell wholesale, I would come to Nashville to visit Nordstrom and that was one of my biggest stores,” he said. “I want to open in places where guys have style and buy clothes and, with its music industry, Nashville is an epicenter of fashion with so much creativity.”
Before visiting the new store, Snyder said he hadn’t been to the city for at least six years and he was impressed with how it’s grown and evolved. “I always knew it was a diamond in the rough,” he said.
Up until now, Snyder’s stores have primarily been centered around the East and West Coasts, but he believes the time is right to bring his take on American menswear to the middle of the country. “We’ve been so coastal, but we’re now honing in on midmarket cities — places where guys like clothes,” he said.
He also pointed to Atlanta and Austin as targets for future retail expansion, along with Chicago, which is so big, Snyder envisions opening three or four stores there.
But for right now, it’s Nashville that’s attracting his attention. “There are so many men’s stores here, but it’s a city where you see men shopping for men,” he said, “like in New York.”
The store features a curated collection of Snyder’s collection, ranging from suits and cashmere sweaters to Japanese denim jeans, Irish linen shirts, selvedge chinos and Italian-made shoes and sandals. Much like the Liquor Store unit in New York’s TriBeCa or Hayes Street store in San Francisco, the assortment will offer the line’s “greatest hits,” he said, as well as some limited-edition pieces. In Nashville, that will include vintage cowboy boots, antique Western-inspired jewelry and a whiskey colored Dylan jacket only available in that store. The unit will also sell some bags and watches from local artisans.
“We want to make sure every store has its own flavor,” he said.
That also translates to the exterior. Snyder commissioned illustrator Richard Haines to create a hand-painted mural on the outside of the store featuring looks from his latest runway show.
He said the mural is “somewhat abstract,” and will be a permanent part of the design. “I’ve always wanted to do something with Richard,” Snyder said. He recalled when he was working on the first iteration of the Liquor Store during his time heading menswear for J.Crew, he noticed a man outside sketching the store.
“We asked, ‘Who is this guy,’” the designer recalled. They met and Haines subsequently “blew up right after that. So to have that connection here really warms my heart. I love his approach and his work. This is a dream come true.”
To celebrate the opening, Snyder and Americana singer Jason Isbell hosted a dinner Tuesday night for Nashville movers and shakers as well as several country music artists. That included Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook; Weiss Watches founders Cameron and Whitney Weiss; Savas founder Savannah Yarborough; Imogene + Willie’s Carrie Eddmenson, and others.
Several of those faces will also help Snyder introduce the store to the community. Digitally, the brand will launch an editorial series featuring T.J. Osborne, lead singer of the Brothers Osborne country duo and one of the first openly gay artists signed to a major country label, as well as Isbell, Cameron Weiss, Chandra and Leigh Watson of The Watson Twins, and EJ LeClaire, founder of the Nashville menswear collection The Commonwealth.
“We’ve been changing how we market,” Snyder said. “Typically, we had hired models and shot them. But this one will feature people with Nashville style, which is unique. The number of men who dress well here is plentiful and we’re leaning into that as a way to talk about the brand.”
After cutting his teeth at Ralph Lauren, the Gap and J.Crew, Todd Snyder launched his eponymous brand in 2011. He sold the label to American Eagle Outfitters in 2015 after which he doubled down on opening his own stores rather than embracing the traditional wholesale route.
