admin Menswear designers have always pulled inspiration from the past. Reinterpreting archival designs for modern audiences has been the name of the game since GIs brought their white tees home with them from the trenches, but today’s crop of hotshot design gods might be more deferential to vintage clothing than any before. So much so, in fact, that a niche subset of brands have garnered devoted followings not for their riffs on vintage Americana or military surplus, but for their painstaking stitch-for-stitch reproductions of rare historical garments.
Enter the coveted “after-hood parka”, a makeshift iteration of the hooded sweatshirt popularized around a century ago when people realized their favorite crewneck sweatshirts would be a lot more practical with a hood attached to the collar, and began sewing them on themselves. Eventually, Champion introduced the silhouette at a commercial level, forever changing the sportswear landscape in the process. As you might imagine, prices for true-blue vintage after-hoods can be staggering, and authentic reproductions of the style don’t come cheap—with one notable exception.
Not too long ago, Todd Snyder went straight to the source, collaborating with Champion to reintroduce a hooded sweatshirt made just like it was back in the old days. Somehow, Snyder’s version managed to slip under the radar, which helps explain how it came to be on sale for a little over a Benjamin. We’d strongly recommend you secure a version in your own size before you alert the rest of the group chat, though: once the vintage fiends get wind of this modern-day after-hood there’s no telling when it’ll come back in stock.
