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"FacebookPinterest\n\nFormerly of Polo and J.Crew, Todd Snyder makes clothes for the guy who wears a jacket and tie because he wants to, not because he has to. We talked to Snyder about how he found his way into the fashion industry. (Hint: Girls.)\n\n\u00B7\u00B7\u00B7\n\nGQ: What kind of source material did you pull from for this collection_?\n\n Todd Snyder: I was watching this movie called The Passenger. It was an old 1970s movie with Jack Nicholson. He looked so cool in it. The whole thing was shot in the deserts in Africa. There was hardly any dialogue and it was all about the scenery and all about the costumes. The Passenger _was a point for me\u2014like, god, this is really cool how can I incorporate tailoring into that desert vibe.\n\nGQ: **How did you get into this business?\n\n Todd Snyder: **I grew up in Iowa, so there wasn't a lot of experience to get into the clothing industry. I worked in a retail store and then a tailor shop in my off-hours. A lot of times I'd be sweeping the floor, ripping out seams, grunt work. It didn't matter. I loved doing it. When I moved to New York 20 years ago I used to make my own shirts on the weekend. My wife always used to make fun of me because I'd be watching a football game and sewing a shirt.\n\nGQ: **So you knew as early as high school that fashion was the career you wanted.\n\n Todd Snyder: **I learned early on it was a good way to get attention from girls. I can't play guitar. I can't be a rock star. My secret was I was going to dress better than everyone else. I would get attention from girls for how I dressed. That's kind of how it all started.\n\nGQ: That's some serious determination.\n\n Todd Snyder: Well, originally I was going to go the business route, go into merchandising, buying and selling, whatever. A year before graduating I realized I didn't want to do that, I wanted to be a designer. So I went back to design school for three more years and finished. My grandma, she was like, \"Well what are you going to do when you graduate?\" and I said, \"Well, I'm going to be a designer, and tailor clothes, and make jackets.\" She said, \"Oh, that's funny, because your name, Snyder, means 'tailor' in Dutch.\" And I was like, \"You're kidding me.\" Then it all made sense."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/todd-snyder-interview-best-new-menswear-designer-2012>