‘The Gilded Age’ Star Ben Ahlers and Todd Snyder Know the Power of a Good Uniform

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Quick Overview

TODD SNYDER makes some of our favorite menswear, and for its latest collaboration, the New York brand crossed the pond to Scotland. The draw? Lagavulin, the distillery that’s been making smoky Scotch whisky on the island of Islay for more than 200 years.

The partnership marks Snyder’s 15th anniversary, with clothes that borrow from Islay’s rugged landscape. Standouts include a brown suede jacket lined in Lagavulin’s own tartan and Fair Isle zip-ups in the earthy shades of the Scottish moors. Pretty great reasons to look forward to sweater weather.

Fronting the campaign is Ben Ahlers. As footman-turned-businessman Jack Trotter on The Gilded Age, the 30-year-old actor knows his way around heritage menswear. Still, these relaxed layers are pretty easy to picture on the streets of New York. We caught up with him about what playing Jack taught him about getting dressed—and which piece he’d bring home.

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MEN’S HEALTH: You spend a lot of time in period costumes on The Gilded Age. Has anything from Jack’s wardrobe made its way into how you dress off-screen?

BEN AHLERS: Jack has a consistency to the way that he dresses. As a footman, he had a uniform, and as a young businessman, he has a pretty steady throughline through his looks—a base structure with really well-made clothing and then accents like a tie or a tie pin or a ring that can allow for a sense of creative expression. I find that I like a level of consistency in my own personal dress as well.

More than anything, the greatest benefit of living inside of the clothing that Kasia [Walicka Maimone, the show’s costume designer] and her incredible team make for us every year is this awareness of the way clothes not only make you present to the world but also how they make you feel within them.

MH: Is there a menswear trend from that era you wish more guys would embrace today?

BA: I would love to see some of the creativity come out in menswear and in the accent work, like a tie pin. Some of the tie pins we have on this show are just so well-crafted and specific. The heads of canes the men wore back then also have such an artistry to them, and there aren’t a lot of avenues for that sort of expression in modern menswear. It’d be nice to see that creative voice or risk-taking come through in the subtle accents that we wear in our day-to-day life.

Young man leaning on a railing, holding a bottle of Lagavulin whisky, with distillery equipment in the background.

MH: Your role in Death of a Salesman got people talking about your physique. How did you prepare?

BA: For Death of a Salesman, I knew earlier on in the development process that they wanted to go the direction that they did for the top of the show, and so I knew that I was going to be kind of exposed every night. I really tried to go to the gym during the rehearsal process because I knew once we opened the show that it was going to be hard to stay as active—the show was just so draining.

The couple of months up to opening, I really made a practice of five days a week of cross-training, lifting, running, and yoga, and trying to keep my body as nimble and buoyant as possible, because the subject matter and the daily grind of showing up to the theater every day can really take a toll.

During the run, a lot of my focus was on rest, recovery, sauna, cold plunge, diet, stretching, because I’d already built the foundation of the physicality. Throughout the five-month run, it came down to being sure that I was healthy and recovering as best as I could.

MH: What happened between takes on the Todd Snyder shoot that we’d never know from looking at the campaign photos?

BA: Between takes, I had a blast with Boo George, our photographer. He is such a character and one of the best energies on set, and really delivered in the work. The whole crew from Todd Snyder and Lagavulin were so supportive, and it was such a fun little escape for all of us to exist on this island in the most beautiful landscape imaginable.

I really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the locals there. Many of the people there worked at the distillery, and I got to see firsthand how the whisky was actually made. People were so proud to share their culture as well as their craft with the world.

MH: Which piece from the collection would you wear back home in New York, and what would you pair it with?

BA: My favorite piece from the collection is the Todd Snyder x Lagavulin suede stable jacket, inspired by the texture and color of the mossy peat that coats Islay. It’s a perfect fall jacket, and I’d pair it with Todd Snyder’s relaxed barrel jean in khaki, which I think would really pop.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.