Todd Snyder x L.L. Bean Chapter Two to Launch
The Upta Camp collection is centered around updates on Bean's classic hunting and fishing pieces.
When something works, you stick with it.
In the case of the collaboration between Todd Snyder and L.L. Bean last fall, it turned out to be one of the most-successful partnerships the designer had ever produced. So it's no surprise the relationship is continuing.
Following the sold-out collection introduced last year, L.L. Bean x Todd Snyder Part II is centered around what is being called the Upta Camp collection.
L.L. Bean founder Leon Leonwood Bean may have been running a shoe and men's furnishings store in Freeport, Maine, to pay the bills, but every fall, he slipped away to his camp in the Maine woods for hunting trips. Snyder used that as inspiration for the new collaboration, basing the collection on updated pieces from the company's archives.
“I really wanted this collection to be a modern take on what our friends in Freeport call ‘Cast and Blast,' — literally the clothes and gear you need for fishing and hunting,” Snyder said. “Rather than create a sampler of my favorite archival pieces from different decades, this time I was more narrowly focused on items from the ‘80s that some of us on the design team remember, inherited or discovered in a vintage shop.”
That translates into a camo pattern formed from a repeated, abstract series of Maine maps that he used on chamois shirts, crewneck sweatshirts and snap-front fleece shirt-jackets. Chinos feature patches of Coachman and Caddis dry flies that fishermen use to catch trout.
Snyder also tweaked the popular styles from the fall 2020 collection by offering up mash-ups of Norwegian sweaters, using classic L.L. Bean catalogue covers as patterns for turtleneck sweatshirts and offering new takes on classic chamois shirts.
The collection offers a range of accessories including Bean Beanies, logoed ballcaps, rucksacks, hip packs and limited-edition totes and Bean Boots created from upcycled vintage military bags.
“L.L. had this great attitude about fishing and hunting,” Snyder said. “It wasn't about how many fish you caught but the experience of getting out there. And I'm really hoping these clothes get people excited about doing whatever it is that helps them recharge, whether that's hunting for game or just watching the game at their local bar.”
The collection will launch on Sept. 24 exclusively at Snyder's three retail stores in New York and on his e-commerce site before being offered at the L.L. Bean flagship in Freeport, on its website and at other select retailers on Sept. 29.