“My philosophy has always been the best quality fabrics with the best quality construction in a simple form,” said Maxwell Snow, who was presenting his signature men’s collection to the press in Paris for the first time.
The designer — who cares about the hand of each fabric used, from the Kaihara denim to fine-gauge merino wool with a cashmere touch to Italian cottons — aims to offer a one-stop shop for basics. These include classic, straight-cut jeans, chinos, two models of swimming trunks and a black cap.
Everything is made in New York, save for the T-shirts, which are done in Japan, and boots from Mexico. (He tracked down the manufacturer of a pair he bought and loved at 16.)
For Snow, each detail serves a purpose, so to protect men from possibly damaging radioactive cell-phone rays, for instance, he lined trouser pockets with fabric (made of nylon woven with nickel, silver and copper) developed by NASA to protect astronauts from the sun’s electromagnetic radiation.
New to his 20-piece collection this season are the knits, blue denim from Cone Mills in North Carolina and a necklace with dice charms made of rough titanium.