Everything
Vibes – to sum up the Spring Summer 2023 Menswear collection from Italian brand TOD’S, that’s the only word you really need to know. To achieve this, creative director Walter Chiapponi simply looked to Italy’s own backyard for inspiration – the sweeping hills of the Italian countryside, the colours of the Mediterranean and the essential basics needed to take a long, leisurely trip across the iconic landscape.
Travel is one of the popular ways to spend our down time – the luxury of time to simply explore new vistas being the ultimate leisure activity. Chiapponi clearly understands this, having taken the TOD’S clothing into a direction that perfectly fits this purpose thus tapping into an idea of casualwear that is both active yet relaxed. It also makes for a collection that is entirely crafted for practical purposes and thus extremely wearable in nature. Literally in nature, where Chiapponi so clearly wishes us to spend more of out time.
The finished result is looks like this: outerwear such as anoraks and parkers become elevated with leather details, robust in design yet refined in aesthetic. Rather than the ubiquitous puffer, protection from the elements comes in the form of a quilted motorcycle jacket, a tailored details giving it a polished finish, along with the matching leather pants. Road trip through Tuscany? TOD’S has you covered. Right down to unlined coats cut from blankets. Subtle clues to the brand’s heritage and most infamous item – the Gommino – popped up in surprising places, such as pebbled elbow patches on jackets. Much cooler, and more robust, than your suede over tweed varietals. More summer-focused looks with shorts and shirting hit the balance between utility and lounge.
If you’re picking up a sense of dreamy nostalgia from the collection, you’re right – one of Chiapponi’s personal loves is cinema and the dreamy scenes of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1996 film Stealing Beauty starring Liv Tyler and Jeremy Irons played a part in informing the clothing the collection. Shorts and shirting that capture the aesthetic of pastoral pursuits, loose-fitting cotton trousers to stride the vineyard in, relax or rilassarsi with a glass of grappa.
Shown at Milan’s Villa Necchi Campiglio, the SS ’23 collection was the brand’s first physical show in several years, it still eschewed the traditional runway format opting instead for a more intimate experience. No more formula, or regiment – just vibes.
