“How can you have an unconventional approach to refined stereotypes?” Walter Chiapponi mused while designing Tod’s pre-fall collection. “How can you refresh the appeal of sophisticated bourgeois codes without detracting from their status?” His answer to these questions was to combine pragmatism and individuality, adding spontaneity and a dash of extravagance to Tod’s Italian-style luxurious casualwear.
Zooming from his flat in Milan (with a decked-out Christmas tree in the background), Chiapponi said that he approached both the men’s and women’s collections as a sort of “Frankenstein experiment.” He riffed on utility-inflected wardrobe staples, adding exaggerated detailings and blowing up proportions to add punch and character. He kept Tod’s artisanal luxury factor intact but he played it less by-the-book, as he believes that the human touch gives “more instinctual depth and emotional feel to each garment, and a sort of sensuality.”
In menswear, the designer hybridized utility uniforms with elegant tailoring and technical underpinnings, as in a voluminous drawstring parka with elaborate zipping details (“they’re like the circuits of a videogame,” he said) worn over skinny workwear trousers. The rainproof fabric of a trench coat was extended into a rather eccentric total look ensemble, consisting of matching pants and shirt.
The women’s offering also had a slightly offhand vibe. A preppy gingham car coat was coated in clear technical material, the collar of a checkered city coat was almost wing-shaped, and a leather crisscross corset was layered over a classic ribbed turtleneck. On the same off-kilter note, ’80s-ish nappa leather stirrups pants contrasted with a billowy poet blouse in crisp poplin, while a roomy cardigan was haphazardly patchworked in block-colored intarsias.
Walking the line between the bourgeoisie and the rebel seemed to be Chiapponi’s game: Infusing sophisticated codes of elegance with a free-spirited feeling resonates with today’s very individual response to our dystopian times.