Too late for the Whitney Biennial and too early for Armory Week, I somehow arrived at exactly the right moment for Snoopy in Style NYC. The free Manhattan exhibition, in the Meatpacking District, traces the beloved cartoon beagle’s wide-ranging influence across art, fashion, sports, and music.
If you know, you know; for everyone else, let me just say that being a Snoopy fan is a dramatic understatement in my case. So yes, this mattered a great deal to me.
Like many others on the Zillennial cusp, I’ve also been swept up in the recent cultural revival of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts universe. That resurgence reached a peak ahead of the 75th anniversary of Snoopy’s debut in Schulz’s comic strip, a milestone marked last October.
All of that makes the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California, especially impressive for the way it curated Snoopy in Style NYC. With close attention to detail, the exhibition balances museum-style material on Schulz’s life and the origins of each iconic Peanuts character with a celebration of Snoopy’s commercial and creative force.
I was also deeply moved by the clear affection for late jazz musician Vince Guaraldi, whose memorable soundtracks accompanied televised Peanuts adaptations. His music played in Joe Cool’s Listening Room, a cozy, carefully assembled mid-century modern space with wooden fixtures, acoustic treatments, and warm lighting. The installation felt as nostalgically immersive as the recreation of Schulz’s own studio permanently on view at the Santa Rosa museum.
The exhibition’s largest section is devoted to Snoopy’s undeniable impact on fashion. Since clothing is central to how Snoopy inhabits his alter egos, Joe Cool and World War I Flying Ace, it makes sense that dozens of brands embraced the chance to dress Snoopy and Woodstock dolls in high fashion. Labels including Adidas, American Eagle, Coach, Kith, Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, and others made sure the beagle and his feathered sidekick were styled for any occasion imaginable — even Knicks in five.
