Todd Snyder and Birdwell's New Board Shorts Are Like Vintage, But Better
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You know the feeling you get when you're sifting through item after item at a thrift shop—just shoving those hangers from one end of the rail to the other, or working your way down a perilously tall pile of folded tees—and you don't so much see that one perfect thing you didn't even know you wanted but feel it? I'm talking about that sensation as your fingers drift from one not-quite-right garment (too threadbare, and yet it's crunchy?) to the one you know in an instant will be coming home with you.
It's washed down and super soft, but not flimsy. It's faded in all the right places. It's loved and worn and well and truly aged, but with so much life still left in it. That feeling is like catching lightning in a bottle. And while it's not too tough to find it in a surplus military jacket, a pair of jeans, or the aforementioned T-shirt, finding it with a pair of swim trunks isn't exactly an everyday occurrence. (Plus, uh, do you really want to wear something someone else wore for ages without underwear?)
So it comes as incredibly welcome news this week that Todd Snyder, as part of his ongoing 10th-anniversary celebration, has teamed up with the folks at Birdwell Beach Britches to create a collection of stonewashed board shorts meant to look and feel sun-faded and broken-in from the very first wear—no sorting through the thrift store racks required.
The new board shorts are based on Birdwell's 310 model, which is the closest current approximation of the first board shorts sold by Carrie Birdwell Mann more than half a century ago. Snyder shortened up the length so they hit mid-thigh, and then did them up in five colorways—navy, yellow, aqua, paprika, and woodland camo—that will go with just about everything else in your summer wardrobe. They're finished with a button fly and a triple lace closure, sewed with double- or triple-stitched seams so they'll last for ages, and still made in the USA. In other words: if you're still on the hunt for the perfect swimsuit for 2021, you just found it.
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