Walter Chiapponi’s gentle determination is prodding Tod’s in a direction that’s syncing with the times, while keeping the label’s pedigree of upscale casualwear at its core. Having earned his creds at houses like Gucci, Miu Miu and Valentino, where talking style is as natural as breathing, Chiapponi is introducing more fashion sensibility into Tod’s repertoire. He understands that if you don’t keep up with the pace of today’s thirst for the new, which is spanning across customers regardless of age, you’re mercilessly left behind.
Being a contemporary art lover with a penchant for everything ‘70s, Chiapponi had the fall collection’s video shot at Castello di Rivoli, which houses a cutting-edge museum of contemporary art located on the hills surrounding Turin, an elegant city with a noble past as Italian capital under the reign of the Savoia dynasty, and called Little Paris for its chic atmosphere.
Formal tailoring isn’t part of Tod’s bourgeois repertoire, but a certain nonchalant polish is what Chiapponi is blending into the mix, giving leisurewear a sort of soigné subversion. “I like working on style stereotypes, almost undermining them with a sense of luxe,” he said at a preview. From the ‘70s he borrowed the everyday uniform of fitted three-quarter shearlings, cords, bell-bottoms, square-cut navy peacoats and chunky Norwegian knits, and twisted it into younger, more relaxed silhouettes, rendered in a chromatic palette reminiscent of vintage car interiors.
The outerwear was rich in slim, quilted piuminos, sporty blousons and windbreakers in a furry wool texture; the shirt-jacket suit, which is emerging in many collections as an easy alternative to formal options, was proposed here in a grey flannel version, paired with matching cargo pants worn tucked into socks as trackpants.
Working hands-on with the artisans in the atelier at finding new techniques and creative solutions to refresh classics is one of Chiapponi’s pleasures. This season he attacked the bastion of the Gommino, the label’s signature supple moccasin inspired by driving shoes, whose sole is made by tiny rubber dots; called Winter Gommino, the new version was proposed in unbleached suede, with more prominent rubber spheres and a more modern, cool shape. Slowly but surely, Chiapponi is making change happen at Tod’s.
