Why Are Fashion Designers So Obsessed With Snoopy?

Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz once revealed that each character’s wardrobe contains an Easter egg about who they are. Charlie Brown’s zig-zag shirt mirrors his perpetual anxiety, Schroeder’s thick black stripes evoke the music he plays, Lucy’s prim blue dress hints at her strict nature, etcetera. Snoopy, meanwhile, has no uniform. He’s a man of many identities, the latest of which is fashion muse. At Snoopy in Style, a new exhibition running until September 26th in NYC, Snoopy gets the designer treatment courtesy of Bode, Tory Burch, and a raft of the city’s most famous fashion labels.In his adventures, Snoopy can be anyone: a fighter pilot, a surgeon, a detective, or whatever else the fantasy requires, slipping into costumes as easily as he does into his daydreams. It makes sense, then, that he has also earned a reputation as fashion’s ultimate blank canvas, lending his unmistakable visage to virtually every conceivable article of clothing over the last seven decades. Since the early ‘80s, designers from Chanel to Gap have also had the opportunity to take it a step further, designing bespoke collections to be modeled by Snoopy stuffies in a series of exhibitions around the world.The story behind Snoopy In Style begins in 1982, when American businesswoman Connie Boucher—a pioneer of the merch licensing business—teamed up with Charles M. Schulz to commission a raft of A-list designers, including Issey Miyake, Oscar de la Renta, and Levi’s, to dress plushies of Snoopy and his sister Belle in miniature high-fashion clothing. After debuting in San Francisco to much acclaim, the exhibit was restaged in Paris and Tokyo. In 2025, to mark the comic strip’s 75th anniversary, the show made its triumphant return as Snoopy in Style, with exhibits in Paris, South Korea, and now, NYC. Co-curated by Collette founder Sarah Andelman, the exhibit sees Snoopy outfitted in new creations from NYC designers including New York or Nowhere and Coach.Tommy HilfigerNick Stokes / Stokes StudiosDaveed BaptisteNick Stokes / Stokes StudiosDesigner Jean Charles De Castelbajac was among the first to recognize Snoopy’s potential, creating a sweater emblazoned with his face and the words, “To be creative or not to be. To be cool or not to be” in 1981. Then, in 1989, he sent Snoopy down the runway in the form of a coat—now on display in the NYC exhibit—made entirely of Snoopy dolls. “Snoopy is in fashion. Snoopy is fashion,” he declared.For Snoopy in Style, Zac Posen gave Snoopy and his sidekick Woodstock the GapStudio treatment, outfitting them in the American sportswear and workwear themes of his Fall 2026 collection. For Posen, Snoopy's style icon status has less to do with what he wears than with the confidence with which he wears it. “Snoopy is pure joy,” he tells GQ. “He’s imaginative, a little mischievous, and completely himself.”Bode’s Emily Adams Bode Aujla, whose yen for 20th-century Americana lends itself easily to the Peanuts aesthetic, chose to outfit Snoopy and Woodstock in corduroy. “My first thought was to dress Snoopy and Woodstock in senior cords: pairing these 20th-century characters with a distinctly 20th-century campus tradition.” The duo is decked out in miniaturized corduroys inspired by Bode’s earliest designs, she says, paired with tiny Bode accessories, and perched on a scaled-down version of the designer’s own corduroy couch.Michael KorsNick Stokes / Stokes StudiosAdidasNick Stokes / Stokes StudiosSnoopy is also beloved in the watch world, where collectors pay top dollar for limited-edition Snoopy-themed dials. “Snoopy is a universally adored character who brings whimsy and nostalgia to timepieces, which is all the more important in a world when watches are no longer essentials,” explains GQ’s resident watch connoisseur Cam Wolf. “Omega uses Snoopy in a particularly great way because its Speedmaster “Silver Snoopy Award”—which NASA gives to those who've contributed to flight safety—ties back to the brand's involvement with the moon landing.” For the exhibit, Omega sends Snoopy back to space in a miniature space suit, a tiny Speedmaster strapped to his wrist.The exhibit concludes, naturally, with a gift shop packed with Snoopy plushies, but they don’t come with designer outfits—those remain off-limits behind their velvet ropes. Fashion Snoopy is couture, after all. Exclusive. Impossibly chic. And—tragically for the world’s many Snoopy superfans—not for sale.