Some New Yorkers don’t go above 14th Street in Manhattan. Not Todd Snyder.

Mr. Snyder, 58, the American luxury menswear designer, spends his days within a five-block radius immediately north of Madison Square Park.

When he moved to New York City from Iowa in 1992, Mr. Snyder honed his craft by working for Ralph Lauren, Gap, Old Navy and eventually J. Crew, where he helped update the men’s line and designed the popular Ludlow suit.

In 2011, he launched his own line with modernized American classics, crafted from premium Italian and Japanese fabrics.

“For a lot of men, fashion is a four-letter word,” Mr. Snyder said. “My whole goal has been trying to figure out how to simplify fashion for men.”

He recently spent a Sunday with The New York Times as he and his team assembled styles for a lookbook, “American Form,” set to be released during New York Fashion Week.