In this new episode of Out of the Clouds, host Anne Muhlethaler interviews Canadian ready-to-wear designer Todd Lynn (@toddlynnlondon).
Anne and Todd have known each other since 2000, whilst Anne was starting out at Christian Louboutin in London, and Todd was designing at Roland Mouret. They became close friends over the years and worked together closely, especially after Todd launched his eponymous brand in 2006.
Todd is considered rock and roll’s best-kept secret. His clients include U2, The Rolling Stones, Beyonce, The Savages, Lady Gaga, Courtney Love, Janet Jackson and P.J. Harvey. His collection embodies the effortless, dark and beautiful rock and roll cool that his music industry heavy hitters have long appreciated, a hybrid fusion of perfect tailoring and casual deconstruction.
The two discuss the joy and the challenges of having your own brand, the future of sustainability, and Todd’s thoughtful opinions around fashion as an ideas system. They touch on Todd’s many incredible musical collaborations as he has dressed many a rock star and reflect upon both the glamour and hard work involved, especially when going on tour.
Todd also offers his mindfulness rituals, which more recently evolved to include baking cakes. Baking has allowed Todd to “connect to a process”, which is somewhat similar to his meticulous collection development process.
Todd then shares thoughts on teaching BA Students at Kingston University, the best advice he ever received from his teacher, the much-missed Louise Wilson, and finishes on the many books stacked up by his bedside. Enjoy!
Selected Links from Episode
Selected Links from Episode:
You can find Todd at : Toddlynn.com
or on Twitter @ToddLynnLondon
on Instagram @ToddLynnLondon
Developing a Fashion Collection – Basic Fashion Design, upcoming book
Fashion Phoenix – a documentary on designer Todd Lynn, directed by John Bland
Be Good to Your Gut by Eve Kalinik
David Guetta ft. Sia – Titanium
Second hand Todd Lynn Designs –Vestiaire Collective
Full Episode Transcript
Anne Muhlethaler
Hi, hello, bonjour, namaste. This is Out of The Clouds, a podcast at the crossroads between business and mindfulness. And I am your host, Anne Muhlethaler. Today, I am delighted to be joined by a really good friend, the wonderful and incredibly talented Canadian designer, Todd Lynn, Todd and I have known each other for many, many moons, I think we must have met in 2000, or 2001. And I was working at Christian Louboutin, and he was working at Roland Mouret, we had the pleasure of working together for many years, especially after Todd launched his eponymous brand. In 2006. Today, we explore together the meaning and the challenges of having your own brand, the future of sustainability, the meaning of fashion, versus wearing clothes. And, of course, we touch on the many incredible musical collaborations, and that Todd has had as he’s dressed, many are rock star, as always, we touch as well on mindfulness and mindful rituals, which include baking cakes in his case. So, without further ado, I am really, really excited for you to discover or get to know better, the wonderful, Todd Lynn.
Todd, welcome to Out of The Clouds. It’s so lovely to see you.
Todd Lynn
Hello, thank you for having me. I’m very, very looking forward to this.
Anne Muhlethaler
We’ve just said it to each other offline. It’s been too long since I’ve seen you. How are things with you? How are things in the UK right now?
Todd Lynn
I guess it’s the same as everywhere. It’s been a weird year; I think for us and for everyone else. Yeah, things have changed. The industry is changing. Work is changing. I guess the main thing is you kind of discover new ways of kind of engaging with things around you. And I’ve been lucky to keep busy. And also, I guess, kind of reflect a lot as everyone’s done in the last year.
Anne Muhlethaler
Absolutely. So, I just found out the other day when I was doing my due diligence and research on you that there’s another famous Todd Lynn, an American actor and stand-up comedian. Were you aware of this other famous Todd?
Todd Lynn
So yes, I discovered this other person, probably early 2000s. I think when I was kind of planning business or websites, I bought my website domain, probably in 2000, or 2001. It was one of those things, I guess everybody was doing it at the time buying their name, just sort of, to hold on to it as a placeholder. I don’t know much about him. He was a comedian, and he was kind of fairly well known, and on lots of American television programmes. In 2012, he died. But the craziest thing is that on Twitter, there were memorial sites about his death. And on one particular occasion, it was my photo. Oh, wow. But guess these are the things that happened with the internet. Obviously, someone had done a memorial page and just looked for Google toddling to get a photo and used mine, which, clearly that post didn’t really get a lot of traction, because I didn’t get a lot of questions coming my way.
Anne Muhlethaler
Thankfully, there could have been really worrying for a lot of people.
So, I would love for us to tell your story to our listeners. And you can pick up from wherever you want and tell everyone who you are and what you do.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, okay, cool. I’m originally Canadian. I grew up in a small town, kind of almost a village outside of a small town, I guess not really connected to kind of the big bad world of what style or fashion or media or anything was. I wanted to be an actor. At one point. I went to high school performing arts and studied for about four or five years to be an actor. I think in the middle of all that I realised that acting wasn’t really an easy job. Mind you, you realise actually anything creative isn’t easy. So, I decided to go into costume design and set design and working on that that side of theatre my did that. That’s basically what led to fashion. I ended up studying fashion afterwards.
Anne Muhlethaler
I don’t think I ever knew that about you. How, how young were you when that became an interest?
Todd Lynn
Well, I guess I was probably early teens, when I kind of got the bug to do something like that. And I took it upon myself actually to do a lot of groundwork and studying about figuring out how to how to go about kind of getting into a school. Like I think my mother had had flagged to me that there was a school opening up where she lived in Ottawa, and I auditioned, and I was accepted into the school. And I think for me, I like the idea of performing I guess, when I was young. So, I was still sewing, I was doing all those creative skills, I would make puppets. I was very interested in puppetry. I guess I just liked the idea. I love going and seeing performances, I guess I like that engagement of people. You know, we’ve talked about that a lot lately. Like, that’s one of the things that we’ve really missed. The idea of seeing theatre isn’t actually what it’s about, it’s about that kind of space that you kind of hold with other people that I think becomes important. And I think I like the way that theatre can kind of transcendence things and kind of get, get people connected by kind of felt that kind of energy when I was really young.
Anne Muhlethaler
And so how did you choose to make that pivot to set design that did that feel like a natural thing? Because you were a crafty sewing kid?
Todd Lynn
I think it was, yeah, like there was a kind of an artistic creative outlet. That probably is the kind of the running theme through all of my childhood was this kind of creative element where whether I was making something, whether I was sewing something, whether I wanted to perform something that that kind of was the main kind of force, I spent quite a lot of time balancing that engagement between kind of theatre set costume design, and what would eventually become fashion design. I mean, they are very connected, because there’s kind of elements of research, there’s elements of craft, there’s, there’s all these things that connected fashion became something that felt right. When I was young, and I kind of engaged with that very quickly. I was kind of one of those people who basically couldn’t get enough of it. I revelled in it. I was obsessed with it all the time. And I know a lot of ways I still am. But I think you have to be right. I mean, I think it doesn’t matter what you do in this world. It’s like obsession is really important, even if you’re working on be able to, to kind of transcend kind of the hard parts of it, I guess.
Anne Muhlethaler
So how did you make the move from Toronto to London.
Todd Lynn
So, I basically studied in Toronto, my in fashion BA. I did that at Ryerson University. And I guess I, I had always wanted to study in Europe. It was really weird. I always wanted to study fashion in Europe, I always felt like it was it meant something, you know, to the industry, which is which it does, obviously. So, I was working kind of in the industry for a few years. Saving a whack of dough, so that I could study. I remember applying to go to Central Saint Martin’s to do the master’s programme. I don’t remember flying over the night before my interview, will elite flying overnight, like an overnight flight, the interview was going to be the next day. And I had to basically go to the interview that I was at, went back to the hotel for the one night and flew back to Canada. So, I wasn’t even in the UK for 24 hours, which cost a fortune. It was it was quite a journey. And I didn’t tell anybody that I was going I literally I said from I had a job. So, I had to say I was sick, or I had to go away and do something, or I didn’t say to anybody what I was doing because I guess it was one of those things like you didn’t know whether it was going to be going to happen or you didn’t want to you know you didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag too early. So, I didn’t tell anybody that I was going to, to do this. And I think I remember specifically like a week later; I got a letter of acceptance in those in those days. It was a letter in the post. You know, it was 1998 wasn’t that long ago? Yeah, I packed my bags. And I came over to London to study.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yay. And so, I think I remember how we met. ish. Yeah, I must same because I must have seen you at Roland’s in the background. Yeah, but not new. You. Maybe tell us how you moving on working with Roland Mouret.
Todd Lynn
So, I think there’s a really interesting kind of little story that I’ve told a lot of people because it’s one of those kind of moments that you always remember when I left Canada, I guess it was in either 1997 I think it came out that was the 15th anniversary of ID magazine. I believe I think it was 97 I’ve actually since bought found the issue on eBay and I bought a copy. So, in this issue on the 15th anniversary, they had printed the 50 most important people in London Fashion. And that was everybody from designers to stylists to agents, like it was a very all-encompassing group. So, there are obviously people that I knew that would be like Alexander McQueen would be in there. And there were lots of people that are the time that I didn’t know agents or hair, people, you know, because if you don’t in London, you don’t necessarily know, know this scene, especially at that time.
So, I remember taking these page, this kind of little insert of 50 people, and I literally carried it around with me for the summer, kind of reading it studying it understanding that these people were because I can’t I guess I realised early on that you needed to know these people, you needed to know the industry if you’re going to work in it. When I arrived. I did my first year at St. Martin’s.
That’s when I had met Roland Moray, I remember, I spent a summer working with him in between my years at my BA and I had told him this story about this tear out of this magazine. And he obviously seen the magazine, he worked for it at the time as well doing styling projects. And I remember that summer, he had a little fashion show with some friends at a restaurant. It was a way of making some funds in the early days, we were having dinner afterwards after the show. And he’s he led over and whispered in my ear, and he said you know your list. There’s nine of those people that are here with us right now. And I thought that was really fascinating, because it wasn’t my goal to meet all these people. My goal was to know who these people were.
But I did think it was funny how you realise how interconnected industries are, and how quickly you can kind of meet these people and how important it is to know to know your industry. I mean, that was one of the lessons that I learned when I was studying at St. Martin’s. But backing up a little bit. When I was at St. Martin’s, I’d met Roland, he came to give a lecture at the university. And he talked to all of us about his business and about what he was doing. I didn’t really know him at the time, having just come over from Canada, he’d only had maybe one or two shows he’s very, very new at the time. Afterwards, about six of us went for a drink across the road from on Charing Cross Road, just to kind of, you know, continue the conversation as it were. And he was really nice, we got chatting and it was he was kind of very giving of information and just a nice person.
Then he’d come back I think, in the spring of this of the following year to do another project with the with the MA programme, of which I was part of, I couldn’t participate in the project cuz I was doing another project. But I did sneak to the side and showed him my portfolio of work that I’d done previously, before I arrived at St. Martin’s. And he asked me if I would come and work with him in the summer. And I did. Cool. Well, it’s kind of like these of the way things happen. I think you take opportunities that that arrive at your doorstep, and you just sort of grabbed them. I have to say it was summer of 99. We were working on Rowlands first show that he was gonna sell which was Spring, Summer 2000. I remember it very specifically, he sold to three stores. And it was probably one of the best summers I probably ever had. Because it was just the two of us creating in the studio. And at the end of every day, we’d go across the street for a drink. And we started at 11. We finished at seven. And it was just a nice kind of way to spend the summer. Being creative. Not a lot of pressure, but a lot to learn as a payment. He would give me drawing lessons for an hour at the end of every day. I remember that.
Anne Muhlethaler
Oh, that’s a beautiful story. To know what’s so lovely. I remember that collection Spring Summer 2000. Because that’s when I arrived. I arrived in London in April 2000. Right, so I wasn’t a good TA and I met Roland probably. I didn’t think it was so early on. But probably a few weeks after I started working at the boutique. And I remember meeting him and I remember the first cheese we ever made for that show the secret bet I remember the name.
Todd Lynn
That’s amazing. Yes, because I think it was sponsored by Mandarina Duck. Doc. And it was in a warehouse building. And I think there was there were three or four designers showing. I guess that was the beginning. Because that was the first time, he sold product to retailers. Yeah, so for me, it was an interesting to see a brand that started there at the very grassroots and actually built up into something that was much, much, much bigger, and not that much longer, you know, kind of in four or five years. It was it was a big thing.
Anne Muhlethaler
So, I’d love to know at which point or what was the impetus for you to start your own brand.
Todd Lynn
So, I guess when I was working for Roland, I was very, very interested in working in menswear. I know that they’d wanted to expand the brand and I had wanted to work on the menswear portion of that brand that was kind of a catalyst. I was really quite happy to stay in the background, I didn’t have this need to have my name on the door so much. And I guess I realised that even a lot more that I really have a product person I really like. I like making things I like product I like kind of beautiful thing. You know, the business shifted course. And Roland had left the company and eventually started up his own brand again. But in that interim, that middle phase, the question was, what was I going to do. And because I had kind of concocted, I guess, a roadmap of how to plan a men’s wear collection. And it was kind of with Roland’s blessing, because he basically said you should do this.
Yeah, I decided to do my own thing. I mean, he left the company in 2006. And that’s when I started, started my brand, which and towards the end of 2006. And he was really helpful, because he introduced me to people who I already knew as well, because I guess that was the thing when I was working with. With him, I kind of did everything, you know, the company back then it was a very small operation. I worked in the design room, but I would also go in the sales campaign. So, I would go with the sales team. And I knew all the buyers, I knew how to sell a product, I knew how to do the costings, I knew how to do a catalogue, the kind of the line sheets as I had all the contacts on the design side, manufacturing suppliers, and I had all the contacts on the buyer side as well, which is quite a unique position to be out. Because when I started my own brand, I was emailing. I was emailing the top buyers in the world, because I knew them. You know, it was quite an odd position, I guess to be at. And also, let’s remember, in 2006, as I say it, you could sell anything on the market was huge. I mean, people were buying, buying, buying, buying. I mean, it was kind of just before obviously everything fell apart. And in 2008. So, buyers had budgets, and I was in a perfect position to be able to launch a brand. I had really good manufacturing. I had very good materials like good suppliers. I think I had everything kind of at the level that Roland was at, I was kind of replicating that in the men’s were in a first collection, I guess, which is like a little bit odd because normally there’s a much more of a building growing phase. There was though, because it was based on other things, but insert in terms of product, make and product kind of logistics. That wasn’t that wasn’t a problem.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah. So, I remember you coming to my office. Yeah. So, when it was just me, and nor, or maybe Claire was also still there working part time, I’m not sure. And nor had Archie, our beloved dog. And you came that first time to talk about Louboutin making men’s shoes for your first show. And you know the thing that’s really sweet about what it prompted after. So, I remember the shoe the Fred and Nour was so excited about making men’s shoes. And after we got the first choose from the show. For our listeners, what we did is we sponsored your shows, you got to keep half the shoes that were produced, and we would get the other half in the press office, and we could use them for photo shoots and stuff. And nor had just heard, so she’s half Lebanese. And she had just heard about Mika. It was early days of Mika, and she became obsessed about reaching out to actually put Louboutin shoes on Mika. So, your shoes with the early beginnings. I can’t remember how she got in touch with him. I’m pretty sure she did.
Todd Lynn
That’s amazing. I didn’t know that I do. I do remember feeling kind of an immense sense of pride. I know that Louboutin that they were they were kind of toying with those shoes, because I think Christian was wearing them and they weren’t marketed. I don’t think well, they weren’t put out. There was no men’s shoes in the line, they will always want to two styles that were the back of the boutique at the beginning. But there was Christian making it for himself or for his friends that she wasn’t in there. So, I remember this kind of kind of the men sense of pride being this moment on a catwalk that liberty, which at the time as well was the was probably the turning point for liberty because it was really ramping up. And this idea that the press were they’re seeing these red soled shoes on men, which they just didn’t know what it was. They had not seen it before. And they didn’t realise that this. So, I was kind of I was I was excited as well about the collaboration because it was something that was completely unique at the time.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, I think it added a little bit to the performance aspect of the show. Because of the flash of the red, like you’re saying,
Todd Lynn
Yeah, 100% and I still have those pairs in storage. I think I would say my favourites would have been the silver snakeskin or the beige snakeskin. I mean, they’re pretty flash.
Anne Muhlethaler
There are fantastic silver snakeskin, I’ll unearth some pictures and add these to show notes as well. So, you started with a menswear collection, and then you transformed it into an androgynous men and women show. Do you want to talk us through that? And what was the appeal for you?
Todd Lynn
Yes. So, it’s really interesting, because before that, I had done a lot of work with musicians. And I was making a lot of clothes for stage and for tours and things and, and it was interesting, because every time I would bring those garments into the studio, so I was working at Roland, so I would kind of do that on the weekends and do that in the evening. Occasionally, taking a day off, I would make these pieces for these rock stars, who were predominantly men, and all the women in the studio, were so desperate to put these pieces on. And it was 2004 2005. They were excited, I think by this idea of, I guess something that was a bit different. We’d come through to everything was quite dominant at the time, there was a lot of that floating around. And they just loved the idea of these pieces. I had considered that how important that was about this idea of men’s wear and women’s wear. I think the thing was, I never really wanted to be this androgynous thing, because I never really wanted a woman to get lost in her identity by wearing men’s clothing because I thought that’s just doesn’t seem to make sense. And I think even more so today. It’s like, you are who you are, you wear what you want. I’ve always believed in that. When it comes to that show. Logistically, I had to have women in the show, because it was London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week at the time wasn’t men’s wear. And in order to be on the schedule in order to be part of the new Gen programme, which was sponsored by Topshop at the time, you had to have women in the show. So, what I did was I just finagled six women in basically a menswear show. The interesting thing with the garments was that they had buttons, they were kind of designed to be able to change shape to fit different types of customers. For people who understand sizing, there’s only one sizing system in the world, I think that really runs men’s to women’s, which is Italian sizing. So, when you think about it, Italian sizing starts usually a women’s 40 up to like a 48. And a men’s usually starts 46 up into maybe a 54 56. So, if you actually sit those two systems, they actually run into each other. And so, the idea was that I would do Italian sizing, and you would buy kind of the size that you that fit you. You know, some men are 44 some women are 48. Like they sit in each other’s categories, and it’s fine, or you want things oversized, you know, at that time it was so foreign territory, where it’s now we don’t even question it anymore. I don’t think at least in the fashion world.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, I am so glad you explained that. So, what is the most daunting aspect of having your own brand? And what’s the biggest joy?
Todd Lynn
So, you know, it’s funny, because I always, you know, they always say hindsight is 2020, I would say the greatest thing about having your own brand are the greatest element is being able to really just do what you want to do. I would say that at the time, in 2006 to 2012, or a little bit earlier, the fashion world lived in and it’s still a little bit like that it lived in this bubble of increasing sales, scaling up, how much more can you sell? Uh, no. I mean, I think we’re kind of over that kind of talk a lot of it now. But at the time, and I’m sure you’ll have the same experience having working for brands, some of the integrity got a little bit lost, because you’re really worrying about scaling up, how many more pieces can we sell? How many things can our factory fit? How much can we run? Do we need another factory? Can we do that? Should we do that? And I felt a little bit overwhelmed sometimes about this idea of stores always want to new, you know, if it wasn’t new, it wasn’t valid. And so, you kind of felt this idea of like, I’m only one person with one kind of aesthetic, you know, and how can I keep turning out something new. And then occasionally, you’re almost so far away from the goalpost of where you actually want to be. And I think nowadays, having a brand is almost more about sticking to your guns even more. And you’re also in a situation where you can do things because we have direct to customer sales because we have different avenues. Because we have different platforms to sell on. You know, in the old 15 years ago, you were basically dealing with big major retailers. You know, I had lots of friends saying to me that if you weren’t selling to a major retailer, you could never scale your business ever. They’ll scale up your business. And it was like it was it’s kind of crazy when you think about it now.
Anne Muhlethaler
I don’t like that word, personally. Particularly for a luxury product. I’m super interested in what you just said. Recently, I was chatting to a young designer called Hannah Fiedler. And she was telling me about feedback on her, I think, third collection that she’d presented to the head buyer woman to our buyer of a big department store. And, indeed, one of the words that came through was, you know, what newness was in the collection. And we had this really interesting conversation around feedback and what the feedback says about the person who gives it rather than about your product, your collection, and your goal.
And we established that it’s actually good, she wants a timeless brand. That’s what she’s building, she makes classic pieces that don’t go on sale, she makes small production run. And so effectively, not having a lot of newness means that the customer’s always going to understand what her brand about. And I think that very much to your point, the younger designers, or some of the ones that I’ve been in contact with more recently, have pivoted away from that more and more and more scale, scale, and understand that they need to protect their own integrity, very much so.
But I do think one of the really hard things for you, because I remember being in a near while, I mean, I did wholesale campaigns, and not every buyer is incredibly, this is gonna be very contentious. Not every buyer has perfect taste. And sometimes they make mistakes, and we all are fallible. And you know, our energy levels, our attitudes, our personal point of view come into play when we do our work. And I find that one of the things I would have wanted to share with you, which Christian did very well shielding himself from after a few years into his business is for the designer not to be in the buying appointment, not to hear the feedback, so they can maintain their own creative desires, impulses, and that, you know, integrity line. But like you said, 2020 and is also the size of the business, right?
Todd Lynn
I completely agree. I think you’re right, sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth, too much feedback is just not healthy. At the last kind of few physical fashion shows that I did with collections were really more about just me doing what I wanted, and really not caring what people were saying in reality, everybody, whether they’re a buyer, or whether giving feedback or whether their media, they have an agenda, which doesn’t necessarily match yours. These are the takeaway points, I think. And it’s interesting, when you see young brands today, they are, they’re a little bit more resilient to that possibly, as well, because those department stores aren’t as receptive. But that’s fine, because I think the world is changing very, very quickly. And I don’t necessarily think that that’s going to be the be all and end all of this business going forward.
Anne Muhlethaler
So, what is the biggest joy then, in having your own brand?
Todd Lynn
I think the biggest joy really is standing back and looking at what you’re able to achieve, like that sense of pride when you feel like you’ve hit the nail on the head of what you wanted to show what you wanted to do when all the stars align, and you’ve worked really hard and you can sit back and you can say yeah, yeah, I did that. That’s the joy part of it. Really. It’s never concrete. It’s never about a thing. It’s about something. Something, it’s a feeling. That’s you know, as opposed to something, you know, that’s, that’s based on a physical reward system. The fact that you maybe sell a lot of product isn’t actually the big joy of it. You know, the biggest joy for me is when someone messages me that they bought something and how much they love it. That’s the joy you know, the joy isn’t the fact that they’ve paid for it. It’s more about the emotion that’s attached to what that is. And I always sort of say this about fashion that that’s why fashion is amazing is because it’s that thing that you kind of touched anything that feeling that emotion that’s the same the same thing that music does, you know when you put on your favourite song or look at your favourite piece of art.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yes, yes. That’s an amazing connection. Totally. But you know what happened to me when I started looking at your collections The other day, I was I think it was on elle.com or vogue.com. And I just thought damn, I lost some your pieces over the many moves that I’ve done. I was googling you and you came up on Vestiaire Collective and I thought, huh, let me go have a look. And guess what I did? I just bought myself a black by that Todd Lynn jacket. On its way to me I’m delighted, I’ll send you a picture when I get it.
Todd Lynn
Nice, I love that about buying, you know, this kind of second market is it’s kind of brilliant for product. I think it’s the future of sustainability as well. Yeah.
Anne Muhlethaler
And the good news is There were only, I don’t know, nine to 12 pieces on there, but they haven’t aged a day. So, I think that’s pretty exciting. I’d like to talk a little bit about your process because I was lucky enough to see or to be near you in many lovely meetings when you came to my office and started talking about shoes. The reason why I thought of that is actually because I read in an interview he gave to Forbes last year, really nice interview, actually, that you take meticulous notes to prepare the week ahead. And so, I wanted to talk about how have you become this incredibly organised and meticulous designer, so can you talk me through your process?
Todd Lynn
Yep, I’m very thorough. It’s funny, you know, because I think during this whole lockdown thing, which is kind of connected to this, I’ve taken up a lot of cooking and baking, I think this is very connected to process because the one thing for me, I’m very fastidious about being exact about things being right.
And I think when it comes to baking, it’s like science. And so when it came to product, and when it came to, to kind of ordering things, and everything was spot on to a tea like I really organised, organised, organised, organised, there’s a positive and a negative, the positive being that I could, when things went wrong, I was a little bit more prepared for it, I could fix them or I could jump into to action so I had less to deal with on that front.
On the downside, though, is that when you’re very fastidious, and Uber prepared about things, you don’t really allow for kind of, savoir faire to come into your life. Sometimes everything being so organised that you kind of you don’t allow sometimes those other changes of wind to come in and kind of give you inspirations.
Anne Muhlethaler
Now talking about inspirations, I’d love for you to tell me about your relationship with music and artists and how you started working with so many of the incredible people who were your close?
Todd Lynn
Yeah, so for me, I remember when I started when I was finishing my BA. So, it was just before, this whole celebrity culture kicked off. But I thought to myself back then that if I wanted to be able to have a name for product, I needed to get them on someone but who was famous. That was kind of a goal, it didn’t really happen. Like you planned, obviously, I was kind of always making product that was maybe a little bit eye catching a little bit off kilter. That’s what I like to do at the time, I think I might be I was working a lot with leather right away, it was a material I could get in Canada, that I could get in a colour that I wanted. Because all those European beautiful fabrics, we didn’t really have access to them. It’s not quite as easy as you know, we’re far away. So basically, I guess how it started really was when I was doing my BA in Canada, we would do fashion shows, every few months, we did a lot of shows made a lot of product because it was a very product driven course. So, I knew how to cut patterns. And I knew how to sew, and I knew how to make things. And we would have our fashion shows judged by a panel of industry people or artists or photographers, couple of shows were judged by local photographer who had had a bit of a name for herself. She used to come and see my student shows, which is like we’re still friends then she wanted to do music videos. And she knew my work and she knew the quality of my work, I guess more than anything else. That’s probably why she brought me on board because she knew what she wanted done. And now we’re going to make product for her music videos. So fast forward. Her name is Floria Sigismondi. She’s a famous photographer, director. So, when you think about it, that this is the kind of one of the people who really supported me really, really early on, and she’s the one who basically just directed the last Gucci campaign. Yeah, these people who you meet along the way, and who offer you support and teach you as well. Like I said, before, everybody’s connected, everything’s connected in some way, shape or form. So that’s kind of how it starts. You know, you meet one person, they bring you along. And then before you know it, I’m fielding calls from, you know, Marilyn Manson management, sending clothes all over the world.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s amazing. I mean, the list is crazy. You’ve worked with YouTube. You’ve toured with them, right?
Todd Lynn
I did I work with it. Well, that was kind of when I came to London. I’d met their stylist through Roland Moray, because they knew each other remember, we had lunch one summer, and when I finished my Ma, I sent my book off to the YouTube offices, and she called me and said, hey, let’s work on the tour. So yeah, I did that was 2000 2001. And then for many, many, many years, it’s still ongoing and we still are in touch, and I still do things when needed. I did that elevation tour. I went out on the road, I would go out for about three weeks and then come back and make more pieces. And then and then go back. I mean, these are the things that kind of changed your life. I mean, remember when I started this conversation on this small kid, I’m the kid from a small town, who had no access to any of this information. And then, and then soon enough, you’re like flying around on private jets with rock stars, dressing them, which sounds glamorous, and you know what it is?
Anne Muhlethaler
Sure, but I also remember you telling me that sometimes you’re the guy. So, in the leather jacket at the back of the bus
Todd Lynn
Completely. I mean, I think that’s where the grounding and maybe that’s the whole thing about all those experiences. And that’s why I can say it’s really glamorous, because there’s the grounded side, in that I was working very hard. And, you know, I’m the one in the venue, at the arena, in a work room, just making sure that everything’s put together. And everything’s done working in those situations. There’s lots of perks, but everybody in this situation is working incredibly hard. It’s not basically like sitting back, enjoying that kind of rock star running out. No, but the good thing is that there is a bit of hanging out. But there’s a lot of work to do before you get to hang out.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s awesome. So, I just want to go through some of the names that I found on your website. Yeah. Aside from you to the Rolling Stones.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, so I did, I went on a little bit of tour with them as well. The great thing as well is that everybody’s, all these people that I’ve worked with, who I’ve named are really amazing people. They’re very giving, and they’re very appreciative and working with legends like the Rolling Stones. That’s great. I just worked on one tour with them. So, it wasn’t a lot, but it’s still quite an amazing experience, of course.
Anne Muhlethaler
And then you did some really cool stuff for Lady Gaga for Beyonce, Shirley Manson, Rita Ora, Jenny Beth of the savages, FKA twigs, who I love, and PJ Harvey.
Todd Lynn
Some of those people were what they had borrowed pieces that were from collection. And then some people pieces who had some of them had things made for them. Yeah, Jenny Beth, I’ve made quite a few things for she’s now has a solo album out which I think they’re gonna tour eventually. But it’s funny because you meet people through people through people like it’s one long line of kind of connected intersections. I mean, surely, Manson from garbage I met what I was working with you to she was opening, you know, and we’re still friends because I don’t know you. You connect to people. And in general, it’s amazing because most people that you come across are really nice people and Shirley’s incredible. She’s just, she’s lovely, and talented and appreciative and beautiful. And she’s very encouraging you get you get lovely little emails, or notes or you know, even comments on Insta, you can see them where she’s just super nice. That’s wonderful.
Anne Muhlethaler
I wanted to talk about the importance of music as well in your shows. And the cover or the background of your website is a picture of that show. Remind me the name of that two-piece band? Oh, my God, it’s it was extraordinary. I love that show.
Todd Lynn
There are well known bad now called slaves. At the time, I think they had just been announced or they had just been on the list of kind of BBC sound of I don’t know when that show was 2015. I guess what happened is going back a couple of years, we had the idea of having a band play at a show, which I thought made a lot of sense. Prior to that, I had all of my shows a lot of them. Then Gary Powell did the music. He composed the music, Gary Paul, who’s the amazing drummer from the libertines, who is a very close friend, him and his partner Jude, who’s one of my best friends, our best friends. Judith Paternoster, who, who produced all my shows, it’s like. So Gary would be basically Gary was composing music for the shows, you have to remember as well that it’s in the time where you want it to be able to put shows online.
And if you didn’t have composed original music, you wouldn’t be able to do it, or you’d have to pay rights. So, I was able to have the show with the music and essentially had copyright permission because Gary allowed me to do it. So that’s why we did that. And I think a lot of brands will do that now or they’ll just pay big bucks to a pop star to pay for the track. But having your own music composed is an easy way around that. Not an easy thing to do because he’s a genius and he did it amazingly well and I love some of those soundtracks are so brilliant.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, I remember every show was a completely different experience.
Todd Lynn
And it was ended. The sad thing is that the soundtrack is probably twice as long as what anybody gets to hear. But it has to be that way, just as a backup, then at a certain point, we decided that we would have a live band play. And the first band that we had play with, again, it was dude, who brought me the band or told me about there was a band called wolf Alice, who now are really famous. I don’t think they were known. I think they had like one or two songs. They played a show, a spring summer show, and they’re really lovely. Ellie, who’s the lead singer, she was kind of like, I guess, navigating her world around kind of fashion music. How does it all How does it all connect, but they were great. And then the following live show that I did was getting slaves on board. I had wanted savages, actually to play a show. But I thought to myself, a few years before that, I thought, I can’t even bother asking because there’s going to be they’re really famous, they’re not going to be interested in doing it. And I realised after having wolf Alice pay or slaves Actually, it’s funny because you ask and the only bad thing that can happen is they say no. And that’s not so bad. And actually, the weird thing is that they usually do say yes. I think the last live show I did was baby strange, which are Glasgow threepeace. They played as well. So, and weirdly enough, all three of those bands, they all know each other, which I didn’t know at the time, but they’re all like friends with each other. So, it’s the music world is probably the same. It’s like so small as the fashion world is. And it was amazing, because I think they loved engaging in that other world just as much as fashion. People love engaging in music.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah. And as we were starting our conversation with this, that element of performance of putting on a show that really ties in with your earlier pursuits.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, I mean, I think that’s it. It’s like the, this intersection. I mean, we always know fashions always connected to music, that kind of makes sense. But for me, I think it’s even more connected, because it’s that kind of customer base. I remember, you know, when I was living in Toronto and working kind of going to school, I always dressed up, like I was a rock star, I was wanted to have that kind of vision around me. I was not mistaken for rock stars on the street, which is quite funny. You know, I was funny because I used to coined that phrase, I think when I started my brand, I was like, everybody wants to be a rock star. And that kind of comes from working with big bands. And being backstage and I remember this specifically when I was working with you two are obviously huge. And they had a huge moment in 2001 2002. But I remember backstage was like Hollywood Central. It was every actor wanted to be in the dressing room. And I realised to myself, it’s like all these famous people are enamoured by musicians. And I thought that’s why I was coining the idea that everybody actually does want to be a rock star doesn’t matter who you are, I’m sure. You know, every actor wants to be a rock star. I also think it’s a bit like, when we look at a musician of performing on stage, we really have this belief that that is their true personality. When we say an actor, they’re playing somebody else. And I think that’s why we’re enamoured by music people because we really believe that’s their heart on their sleeve.
Anne Muhlethaler
I could not agree with you more. That’s a beautiful expression. I wanted to talk about something else. So, in the same article that you did, last year, in Forbes, there was a fantastic quote, you said, fashion isn’t really clothing, right? And you said, clothing is what we wear, and fashion is about ideas. So then not really the same thing. Fashion will still exist; we still need it. We need it. Like we need art, like we need culture, like we need music. Like we need whatever we love around us to make us feel connected. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Todd Lynn
Yeah, I mean, I’ve been talking about this for a long time now in that. I think there’s this there’s a bit of a disconnect at the moment. But it’s really at a head now building in the last 20 years that this idea that clothing and fashion are the same thing. I think they can be the same thing. And there’s definitely a connection. But this idea that we lose sight because fashion in my opinion is a laboratory, it’s ideas when people see catwalk shows for a lot of people who may be listening who don’t work in the fashion, that idea of like why I wouldn’t I couldn’t wear that. I wouldn’t wear that. Why would anybody want to wear that? And I think people don’t understand that ideas form. You know, I would sort of say fashions about ideas, and sometimes those ideas become clothes. That’s the connection of fashion to clothing. I think we’re in a situation now where the high street has kind of flipped fashion on its head and created product in mass numbers and under the Guys that it’s fashion. And I think that that’s, that’s quite a dangerous, it’s dangerous for the industry. I also think that there is a little bit of a lack of respect for clothing for fashion for product, because the high street has made things seem not expensive. You know. And I think when I see people, even people that I know, even wealthy people will look at product and say, what is that, that sweater? 700 pounds, that’s too much. And I’m thinking of it. Somebody worked on that somebody created that somebody crafted that it’s made out of these materials, it’s done in a particular way. And yes, a label does add to the price tag. But it’s not an inflated price tag for no reason. I think people don’t understand that. A lot of the times its advertising campaigns, and it shows there’s a lot of things that go into it that need to be paid for in that I think we’re in a situation now where people look at a product, and don’t really associate a value to it, I guess the same way you might think of like, I guess sometimes people will look at food the same way. It’s like, but food foods cheap. You know, why should I go to an expensive restaurant, it’s just a rip off. And I think people don’t understand the connection of what some of this product is. So, for me, fashion is really an ideas-based system. Yeah,
Anne Muhlethaler
Thank you. I really appreciate that. One of the analogies that kitchen I always like to use when people challenged him to say, why is your product, the price that it is, is he used wine, everybody understands that some wine is cheap, and some wine is expensive. And most of the time you can tell why there is a difference between the physical external side has a resemblance. And yet the product and the quality is completely different.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, I think also there’s that there’s that idea where people sort of believe that they can, that they can make it. You know, I think that you know, someone who knits at home might sort of believe that they could knit the same thing. Someone who’s so that home, I believe they can make the same thing. But you can’t because you don’t have access to materials, you don’t have access to the fits the patterns and the way that that’s all put together. But you’re right. I mean, I think I do the same thing when it comes to like automobiles. People don’t look at an automobile and think it’s too expensive, or it should be cheap. Because they because it is what it is. And I think it also because they can’t comprehend the process maybe to make that they kind of allow that to be expensive. Whereas a lot of the times with clothing, they don’t see that. I’m not a believer that it has to be luxury all the time. You know, I think not everyone can afford that. So, I understand that. But I do believe it’s about people need to be responsible about buying things, and thinking about what thereby. Yeah.
Anne Muhlethaler
Alright, so I’m going to switch it up, because now you are still designing, but you are also a teacher. Can you tell us about what it’s like to be teaching BA students at Kingston college and how you feel about being a teacher?
Todd Lynn
Yeah, so I it’s really interesting, because even when I had my brand running as a, I mean, I still have the brand. It’s just like what I’m not doing shows. But when I was running, I kind of a day to day, I would have lots of interns and lots of students. So, I was always kind of teaching or like showing things or educating them on some level. But I guess a few years ago, I had an opportunity to go and do some teaching at Kingston, specifically, I’ve done a few things in other places as well. It’s one of those amazing things, being able to kind of, I guess, give a little bit of information, transfer a bit of wisdom to new people, people working with people who have excitement about the industry, I kind of love that interaction. It’s quite interesting, because you get lots of students coming from all different backgrounds, all different kinds of directions of where they want to go with their work. And I think it’s really interesting to kind of sit there and help them along their way. It’s funny, because quite often I get practically just as much from them as I’m giving to them. It’s amazing how that system works. You know, when you’re helping somebody, you get a lot back in return.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s so gorgeous. I love it. And I can imagine that you’re very appreciated as a teacher. I also wanted to point out that you are a major lover of network. And sorry, I didn’t say that well, a major lover of network, and so am I. So, I appreciate that we have this obsession in common. I would love to know, where does that love come from? And can you tell us about this new collection that You’ve got on pre order on your website,
Todd Lynn
when I was a teenager or like kind of late teens, kind of discovering fashion, discovering European fashion designer fashion. And I used to go to a few shops in Toronto, I guess window shop for lack of a better word, going around seeing things, trying things on never having any money to buy things. One of the first things that I was able to buy was knitwear knitwear comes in different price points, with lots of brands. And it was kind of one of those things where it was almost like, at the time entry, kind of price pointy things. So, I was able to buy to save up my money and buy maybe a marshmallow jumper, or at the time that McQueen piece. I didn’t have a lot, but I you know, I could buy a few things. So, I’ve always had this affinity and love of knit. I also thought when we go back to this idea of what can you make, what can I make myself and I kind of knit? So, I literally go to a factory and work with a factory about doing that. So, I guess I mean, the products that I love buying are things that I can’t make myself, so my shoe collection is ginormous. Because I can’t make shoes. But I can love to wear them. And knitwear I like buying a lot of knitwear. And I love making knitwear as well. So, I guess a few years ago, I was working on some knitwear designs, and then in lockdown, I thought I’m bored. I’m just gonna make some knitwear. So, I contacted the factory, I sent them all the dimensions, and we just had this conversation back and forth. And literally, I was just making myself something. That was the plan, jumpers. And, and then when they came back, and I showed this to some people, some friends, they were like, why aren’t you selling this? And I thought, actually, why? Why am I not. And so basically, I, I decided I would make a few more colorways. And then I would just I would sell them. And that’s kind of how that started. It wasn’t a big kind of hyped plan; it was something that happened gradually. I love wearing my own product, because it’s kind of you feel more connected to it.
So that’s how the knitwear kind of thing started. And I’ll do more, I’ll do more colourways. And I’ll do more symbols and more things are awesome. And people can order them online. Now for pre order. How long does it take to get the delivery, roughly, I just did a run, which was great. And then I’ll do another one probably towards the end of the year.
So it would be in time for winter Christmas. Although I probably end up November delivery, the pictures are on Instagram, they’re on the website as well. This is where I think selling directly to the consumer is makes more sense on a lot of ways because the consumer gets a better price, I get a better price than wholesale. It kind of all works. And also, I’m producing to order which means there’s no excess. I’m a real big believer in this like don’t go on sale. Because I think sale just it devalues the product. And I think it’s a big issue that we’ve got in especially in luxury fashion. How to deal with this. Some brands never sale go on sale some brands do I really think if nothing ever went on sale, people would just buy what they wanted rather than wait.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, but also brands would not scale as much. And we know that this is the you know, the running for more and more and more that really is driving this, isn’t it?
Todd Lynn
It’s Yeah, that’s the big issue. I mean, I can understand because also, when you talk about brand scale, you also talk about shareholders and kind of how do they get their money and out maybe that’s the crux of the future is trying to figure out how that dynamic is going to work? And how are shareholders going to get their money if their return on investment? And how are brands going to be able to survive and thrive without over producing? Because I think it’s this idea of like, you can’t just throw everything and see what sticks. Because that’s quite dangerous. If it is product that’s on sale, how is it done? How is it marketed? I mean, in this pandemic, it’s been terrible for so many brands I can feel for I understand, I can see that pain when you see a price tag when it says sometimes 90% off or 80% off. I just think it’s quite sad on a lot of levels.
Anne Muhlethaler
Well, let’s move to other things. Now. I think well, well, actually, I was going to ask you to talk to me about grounding rituals and what has kept you sane in the past 14 months. Obviously, you know that the podcast is about the crossroads between business and mindfulness. So are there any rituals or practices that have really helped you and maybe you had some beforehand as well.
Todd Lynn
I would say for me, one of the big things really being able to switch off being able to do the work and being able to switch off, which is probably something that didn’t happen before, before I was very much, just do it until it’s done, of which it never seems to be done work always will be there. And so, I was spending a lot more time, like switching off, six o’clock, I’m done. I’ve taken up things like cooking, it’s other things that are still creative, that are in a different area where I can kind of almost lose myself, I don’t know baking, it’s, it’s kind of a, it’s, it’s a fun kind of challenge. It’s a release and kind of like gets me in a different headspace. I really enjoy, enjoy that. And, obviously, lots of walking. everyone’s done very fortunate in that I live, just outside London, so it’s quite kind of green. There’s lots of waterways, there’s the Thames rivers nearby. There’s like canal systems. So going for kind of country type walks, I do that a lot, obviously doing a bit of exercise, trying to get my way through yoga sessions. I’m not an expert, but I figure, it’s a good opportunity to kind of do this, it’s something you can do at home. So, I do that, obviously meditation as well. I mean, it’s kind of, you know, I kind of try to take as many of these boxes when I’m not working as I can. And because also, I’m not necessarily working every day. So, there are days where I can actually just literally chill out for the day as well, I almost allow myself to just do that. If it’s a Tuesday, and I don’t have anything to do, I literally allow myself to do something else. I do kind of have a rule and that a television doesn’t come on until the evening. And usually I’ll select a programme, like, Thursday night is X Files night. So, we’ll go into the old box, you know, and Sunday night will be this TV show, and we kind of have it kind of mapped out. So, it’s not like, because I think that for some people, it’s very difficult, you know, you’re getting trapped into Netflix and just binge watching everything. It’s actually that old school thing of like one episode per week, I quite loved that. And then obviously, the radios on quite often. So, music’s always on, I kind of live without that. And then I’m very fortunate. And then I’m doing lots of small projects, like there’s really creative projects that come that come my way and lots of things. So, for me the ritual of being able to get out of the workspace, I think is that’s probably saved me during the past year. Because we haven’t been able to be social, we haven’t been able to switch off by going and meeting friends for dinners and theatre. And so, I’ve had to have figure a different way of being able to switch off. And actually, I probably switched off more because of it, which is I guess a positive thing.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, that’s wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing that. And before getting on to my closing questions, I wanted to talk about a book project that’s coming out later this year. Can you tell us about that?
Todd Lynn
Yes. So, when I was hired to teach at Kingston University, Elena Renfrew, who was at the time, the head of the department had a book that she had published. And she asked me if we if I would work with her on the third edition. So, the book is called How to develop a fashion collection. It’s through Bloomsbury. And it’s really geared primarily towards students, and kind of that process of designing a collection. So, it’s kind of the third edition, which, for me, was great, because it’s the first foray into publishing, which is quite a complicated world. I don’t really know much about it. Now I know more anyways, we’ve been working on the publication for two and a half years, it comes out in September, it’s been really great, an interesting experience, it was something that I’m going to do more of, I have an idea of my own book, which I’m going to now take to the publisher, now that I have an idea of how publishing works and start to work on that.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, actually, I found a DVD or a film called the fashion Phoenix film about Canadian designer, Todd Lynn. What is that?
Todd Lynn
I’ve seen that a couple of times. So, it was done by john bland, who is a film director. I can’t remember what it was over a period of a few shows, where he literally followed me around and did this did this documentary. I don’t think it’s available anymore. But you know, it’s really weird is that when you look back and you realise, like all this stuff, you kind of forget, you know, and I was thinking about it even today before I started, it’s like when I finished my BA Canada, and I’ve got the film, I’ll send us all retransfer and send it to you. I did a talk show in Canada. I was on a talk, I was a guest on a talk show. It was amazing. It was. Yeah, I didn’t when I think back on like having even done that. And weirdly enough, how it happened is when I was much younger, and I was like I was doing theatre external theatre. When I was in high school, I worked on a play a musical that work with a lot of musicals on a group. And in the show that I was working on was a very young, unknown nine-year-old Alanis Morrissette. So, you must be kidding me. So, so I knew a lot of us when, when I was a teenager, and when she I think might have been your first record or a second record in Canada, I had sent her like as I did my pack of clothes that I made. And I think she was on this talk show. And then she had the folder of my designs, that what she was looking at with her management and the talk show people saw that and they’re like, oh, we’ll just get him on. So that’s kind of a long time ago.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s a really improbable and kind of phenomenal story. To know what I take from this, though, is, all the stories that you’ve told me is that you put yourself out there. You didn’t just study you showed wrote on your portfolio, even though you couldn’t be in, you know, the product that he was teaching. You sent Alanis Morrissette, your pocket clothes like you really did put your work out.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, I think that that’s, that’s probably the takeaway of a lot of things, which you just have to try. I think it’s a combination of working very hard and being diligent with your craft or what you’re trying to do. But it’s also having a bit of pride, and really being able to kind of share that and show people I would say that I got, I’ve been I saw that thing. It’s like, I got lucky. Like, I think it’s, you know, that’s it’s, it’s, it’s a bit of both, right, it’s See,
Anne Muhlethaler
I think you make your own luck, when you send an your work out into the world. What I want to circle back to which I find beautiful about your story, is that you said about your early interest in in acting, that your mum had done research, you were, it sounds to me, like you were brought up in an environment where being creative was a possibility. Whereas what I have found near me, in my own family, and in lots of other friends is lives, that they were told that you couldn’t live from something creative. And you had to go and pursue a different path in the world. And so, I think there’s something very beautiful about a letting yourself pursue your artistic dreams. And then putting the work out.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I think my parents were they were teachers. They did work in a creative field. But they allow that to happen. I think my mother always had, she always painted she always did some creative outlet. My brother works in in TV production. I guess, as a family, we were permitted to kind of have a creative outlet. Yeah. Which I think is important. I think it’s important for everybody, because we’re all creative beings, whether you think it or not. Oh, that’s beautiful.
Anne Muhlethaler
So now tell me, what is your favourite word?
Todd Lynn
I knew you were gonna say this one. I was thinking to myself, it’s, I mean, I don’t really know what I would say I would have a favourite word. I mean, there’s words that are useful. There’s, you know, like swear words are brilliant, because they just get out that they get an emotion out very, very quickly. And then ideally, that you can just kind of move on. But it’s where my association with words. Interesting enough, I’ve probably been doing more reading now than I did before, as probably a lot of people have. So, my association with words has not been has been more mechanical, I guess, in the past than it is now. So, I wouldn’t say that I have words that kind of resonate with me as favourite words. I thought about it. And I’ll probably think of one probably one will come to me. But it’s one of those things where I was like, I can’t really think of that, because I was thinking whether it’s softer sounding words or words that are more harder sounding, but I kind of, I guess it depends on the mood, right?
Anne Muhlethaler
Well, one of the ways that you can ask yourself the question in a different lens is if you were to get a tattoo right now, and it was a word what we did say,
Todd Lynn
Yeah, good idea. The first thing that pops to my mind is love. Amazing And then that’s the that’s just what popped into my mind.
Anne Muhlethaler
Perfect. I find that what pops into the mind is generally the right thing the right word.
Todd Lynn
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s, it’s an emotional thing as well over the last year, emotions have run very high and a lot of for a lot of reasons. Everyone experiencing things differently. That’s probably Yeah. interest. Awesome.
Anne Muhlethaler
So now, I think this is much harder, what song best represents you?
Todd Lynn
Yes. So, this one, it was interesting as well, because I thought to myself, when you listen to the lyrics of songs, most often, they’re about something very negative. because someone’s gone through something, some emotional thing, and they come out the other side, they’ve usually written a song about it. But it was funny, because there was one song that did pop into my mind where I did actually like the lyrics to, which is that one that says things called titanium? Which I thought, yeah, it kind of relates to that idea of, really, that idea of having to work, although the song I guess, relates to struggle in that, which I guess everybody does, in some way, shape, or form. We all have, I mean, you know, even if, even if I’ve been very fortunate to work, in the things I’ve done with the people, I’ve done all that stuff, there’s always there’s always like a struggle that’s attached to it. You know, the people who know me, the best, like yourself, know that it was never, like, you know, you come out at the end of the show, and you’re like, oh, it all seems so done. And you know, and, and no one sees the other side of it. But I would say also, there’s a song, that always it’s kind of one of those songs when it comes on. It’s like it is probably one of my favourite songs of all time, which is a song coincidentally by you, too, which was a favourite song before I even met them will work with them, which is some called stay far away. So close.
Anne Muhlethaler
Oh, my God, I love that song.
Todd Lynn
And I think it was it wasn’t necessarily the lyrical content so much. But it was just when you when you I can hear like we talked about words a second ago, I can hear those kind of key words come in. I can hear edges guitar, I can hear the kind of that emotional kind of element in Bono’s voice. And of course, it came with that amazing Vin Vendors video, which kind of sticks in my head with Bono and the sculpture with the wing.
Anne Muhlethaler
I am a huge fan of that film, because that was the sequel to the wings of desire. And I know it’s for the people who do like them Vendors. It’s gonna sound like heresy, but I preferred the sequel. I am in love with that film.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, exactly. So that that. And it’s funny how, when you talked about, you know, song best describes you. That song is just one of those songs, I feel an emotional kind of connection to and I remember, because, luckily enough, that tour that I worked on, that song was in the setlist almost every night. And I remember it would like literally I would almost cry every time it would come on, and I’d see it like every show that I went to, which was a lot of those shows. And I would just sit there kind of listening to this incredible, amazing song. And it’s just one of those ones. It’s really emotive. And it’s just beautiful. And so, for me, for me, that’s, that’s that music thing, that emotional kind of thing of music is the thing that always gets me you know, the bit that makes you feel kind of, I don’t know, sad or happy, sad, or you know, for me that’s, that’s important.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah, I’m currently obsessed with her. I mean, I have with her for a couple of years. And I just saw her Oscars performance just before getting on, on the call with you today. And amazing. I love her.
Todd Lynn
Amazing. I mean, I’ve always believed that about authenticity, Authenticity, and work authenticity and life, authenticity and everything. And I think when you when you hear a lot of these new musicians now, there is an authenticity that is that there that that is there, that’s really important. That’s why even when I’m listening to someone like the new person like Billy Eilish, you know, it’s her. It’s not a song that’s been written, you know, to basically get airplay, or, or make money. It’s like, this is just something that’s very personal and very, very hard. And I think when musicians try to get away from that, it usually doesn’t work. They usually talk about that, that most of them, it has to be personal, but some of them give a little bit more, which I think you can feel,
Anne Muhlethaler
I think is the same about all kinds of work. I think that when you decide to be more generous, to dig a little bit deeper, to give that bit of yourself that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. And that’s what connects you to other people.
Todd Lynn
You’re it’s funny you said that because that’s one of the things when I’m working with my students, I always say to them that when they’re designing or when they’re doing their work, I sort of say that if you find yourself in an uncomfortable place, that’s the money, that’s the place to be. That’s the place to go further. Because I think when we’re comfortable, it’s almost like we’ve seen it, we’ve done it, we know it, we kind of need to get, you know, in that when we’re in that discovery mode. It’s literally that that kind of uncomfortable feeling is a good place to be because it’s telling. It’s telling us something.
Anne Muhlethaler
Now, what did you want to be when you were a kid?
Todd Lynn
So yeah, so obviously, when I was a teenager, I wanted to be an actor. But before that, I was thinking, and really, it was the bog standard. I didn’t want to be an astronaut. I wanted to be, I actually wanted to be that I loved. I always had cats when I was young. And I’m kind of still obsessed with cats, as I know you were I love animals I love the idea of going to the zoo is like, amazing being a vet was kind of something that I guess when you’re a kid, you don’t know that many options. But that’s an option that I knew because I had a cat. So, we would go to the vet. So, I knew that that was an option, other cover career. And who knows. I mean, it was kind of one of those things where like, if I had to live life all over again, maybe being a vet would have been a great option. Because I because I still can see that.
Anne Muhlethaler
Absolutely. That’s gorgeous. Now, if you could send yourself a message to your younger self, what would you say?
Todd Lynn
So, this one, I would say, don’t worry. Because I think we spend all of our lives worrying about something. Worrying about finances worrying about career choices, worrying about, did I pick the right meal at a restaurant? I mean, are we I think we live our lives, worrying about timeframes. Am I going to be late? I guess that, you know, young people, it’s their lives are full of worry. And I think, you know, that would be my advice. It’s like just chill, don’t worry, it’ll be fine that we spend it we waste a lot of our times worrying doesn’t really, it doesn’t really have a good result.
Anne Muhlethaler
Now, can I ask you what is the best advice that you have ever been given?
Todd Lynn
I was thinking about this. And there’s probably been loads of advice that I’ve been given. But one that really sticks out in particular, is what I was doing my master’s programme, and the legendary Louise Wilson, who, who was a mentor to many, many, many designers in the world, as a lot of graduates have passed to her. Her system, like Richard Nichols, he said, and I mean, we could literally name you could name 50% of London designers, and they all have Louise Wilson as a tutor. And I think she basically was the one that pointed out to me, when I was there, you kind of go through this kind of phase of not knowing what type of product or what type of designer, you should be aware, you should go you start to question everything. And basically, she said, you know, you really just do what you do. She said, I’ve written it down. So, I wouldn’t take it as exactly right. She swore. She said, Stop fucking around and just do what you do. Do what you should do. You know, and I think that, and I think it’s weird, because it’s really simple advice. But a lot of people don’t take things like that on board. I think a lot of people are trying to be something that they’re not or trying to be something that they believe other people expect of them. You know, I think even when I think about and obviously, I’ve like I need to listen to that advice all the time. But even I remember what we were talking about earlier about those early days of London Fashion Week, when I was participating that those 2006 2007 eight years it was everybody was trying to be the same, like in terms of on the same level. So, all the little brands were trying to pretend to be big brands, selling to department stores doing big shows, so that they could compare it to that when you had them all. When you had like Gucci and Nicolas Ghesquiere Balenciaga and you had all these brands on the on the page, everything looked like it was the same kind of level. And I think that’s, that’s a hard thing that we that you have to realise. It’s like it’s okay you don’t have to be that you don’t have to be this this expectation of what people what you think people want. You know, I mean, Louise Wilson was kind of paramount in the most designers beginning and basically getting you to do what you’re going to be best at. And for her, for me, it was making these clothes for rock stars and making these kind of pieces that made people feel like that that gave empowerment. That’s all
Anne Muhlethaler
That was what the product was fantastic. I mean, what a phenomenal teacher.
Todd Lynn
Yeah. She’s widely people try to wildly emulate what she does, but I don’t think it’s possible. Because I don’t even think when she was alive. She knew what the magic was, but it was certainly there.
Anne Muhlethaler
Oh, um, what book is next to your bed or on your desk?
Todd Lynn
I have a lot. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading. It’s funny because my boyfriend reads voraciously. Like, I had, like I said to you, I think on our phone call recently, I think you made 162 books last year, most of them are nonfiction, I kind of need to live up a little bit to the standard. I’m not gonna read that many books. But I did make a little list just to give you a gauge of the little stack of books by my stand. I love it also gives you It gives you the variety of books that are there. So, I just went from the top to the bottom. The first book on the pile is a dietary book called be good to your gut, by Eve Kalinic, which was actually advised to my friend PJ Harvey advised me to read this book. So, I thought, Oh, that’s interesting. I’m going to read out and then the below that one is the highway code, because I’m learning how to drive. then below that one is the life changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo. Yay. I love Marie Kondo. Weirdly enough, I read the second one before I read the first one, but reading the first one, then I got another one which I which is called Tarzan Economics by Will Page. I think I got it from a podcast may be below that is how to eat by Nigella Lawson. I think it’s her first book. And then below that, it’s like a fashion theory book called fashion remains rethinking ephemera, and the archive. And then below that is how music works by David Byrne. And then Benjamin in fashion is at the bottom, which is about Walter Benjamin, which is a fashion philosopher, or philosopher who does a lot of work in fashion at night. I just kind of grab whichever one. I feel like continuing to read. And yeah,
Anne Muhlethaler
that sounds fantastic. I love it.
Todd Lynn
Yeah, it’s a fun list of books. And very, very eclectic.
Anne Muhlethaler
Yeah. And so that brings us to my last and favourite question. What brings you happiness?
Todd Lynn
Yeah. So, I was thinking about this. And, and basically, I did touch on it earlier as well. And that for me, I think it’s just, it’s beautiful things there like that. Like I said before, I’m a Product person, so I make things. So, I like that I like, I like objects. I obviously like fashion. So, what I have something that that I’ve made, that has come up looking amazing that I’m happy or, or I bought something that I love. I don’t know, I just I like I like art brings me, you know, if it’s an artist that I particularly love or a new discovery, I think that’s one of the things that I really missed the last year being able to go to these galleries and kind of explore, I mean, for me, one of my favourite things to do in New York is just go down to Chelsea and just go in and out of all those galleries. I could spend days doing that. And I love I don’t know, I love that, you know, when it comes back to fashion, getting dressed in one of my favourite outfits. It just makes me feel really great. You know, and I think that that’s the great thing about, about all these things around us, although they’re physical, and people may say they’re kind of, they’re just objects can’t take it with you, as they always say, but these are the things I think that actually that kind of give me that joy kind of making me feel. I don’t know, excited. I always sort of say that if everybody. If everybody took pride in what they wore, wore what they love. I always thought the world would be a better place. Just because you feel differently. You it’s not about appearance, it’s about emotion. It’s about what’s in your head. We all know what it’s like when you when you leave the house. And you and you’re wearing something that you don’t actually like, and you think why did I wear this and it but then you know when you leave the house and you’re dressed up and you’d like down. I look great. You feel you carry yourself differently. You walk differently, you interact with people differently because you know, it’s so and it’s so suddenly it’s not so superficial. When it kind of infiltrate your mind. It becomes it becomes something bigger than that.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. And Todd, thank you so much. This was such a joy.
Todd Lynn
I loved it. It was. It’s, it’s just nice to have a conversation about, yeah, about all these things that are that are important to all of us. But that make us feel connected, like I said earlier. And I love having this discussion about mindfulness. And the way that that we live and the way that things are changing and how, how to small little things, it’s easy to kind of adapt that into your life without even having to think about it freely. You know, it hasn’t really been any changes I’ve made haven’t really been an effort.
Anne Muhlethaler
That’s, that’s a blessing. That sounds like a really, really amazing blessing. So, people can find you online at ToddLynn.com. And on Instagram, yeah, my Instagram is @ToddLynnLondon, Twitter, as well as London, and Facebook and I will obviously put all of the details in the show notes. Thank you so much, dad. Thank you, my love. Thanks again to Todd for being my guest on the show today. You can find all of the details about his brand, as well as his new network Project Online at Toddlynn.com. And you can find him on Instagram @ToddLynnLondon. All of the links of course are included in the show notes. So that’s it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you’ll join us again next time. Our theme music is by Connor Hevernon, artwork is by Brian Ponto. Special thanks to Chris at Between Tracks Productions for editing and sound. You can soon find all of my episodes and find out more about my projects at nannevmuhlethaler.com. If you don’t know how to spell that that’s also in the show notes. Do sign up to receive updates on all the cool things that I am working on. You can follow the show on Instagram @_outoftheclouds. If you can, I would love it if you would rate and review the show on iTunes. So, until next time, be well be safe. Remember the hand washing the mask all that good stuff