Review of Tod’s Fall 2023 Fashion Show
Power Dressing Reloaded
By Mark Wittmer
For Fall 2023, Tod’s creative director Walter Chiapponi continued to flex his focused balance of classic and contemporary, guiding the brand steadily forward and serving up strong renditions of both new and old classics.
Focused and rigorous without being severe or reductive, the collection viewed a classic winter wardrobe both through a lens that tapped into both Tod’s historic legacy of classic leather work and felt crisply contemporary.
Oversized yet sculptural tailoring forms the basis of the collection. Classic pieces like camel coats are given subtly exaggerated lapels for a more regal sort of presence. 80s power suiting motifs like double-breasted coats, shoulder pads, and banker stripes are reconsidered with more attention to the waist via belting and wrapping, creating a subtly more feminine feel while maintaining the sense of strength. Other classic outerwear pieces like bombers and sherpa-lined moto jackets are briskly cropped to elongate and emphasize the sculptural strength of the silhouette.
But it’s under the outerwear where things start to get really interesting as Chiapponi plays with layering – both in the sense of a literal layering of pieces and in terms of combining the classic with the contemporary, and especially the technical. The first camel coat is worn over a matching hoodie-dress hybrid, whose classically elegant vertical stitching is met with sporty cinches and zippers. A similar look appears later in leather. While the leather bags feel timeless, the house’s leatherworking mastery puts the precious material to use in innovative ways as well, rendering adventurous cargo shirts out of the material or using it to give a sporty, almost racecar-esque finishing strip on knit dresses. Classic shoe styles are updated with chunky soles.
Chiapponi keeps the color palette to a classic and versatile range of neutrals – black, white, camel, navy, and a gray-green or two – a sober move that lets the focus on structural layering, smart construction details, and luxurious materials.
Even more so than other luxury fashion brands, Tod’s always has been and will be known and sought after as a leather goods house – and Chiapponi has certainly been delivering on this front. But his quiet commitment to using the opportunity of ready-to-wear to lend a steady voice to the contemporary fashion conversation deserves commendation and celebration as well. While steady and nuanced, his work is also thoughtful, exacting, elegant, and imaginative. Chiapponi and his team at Tod’s understand the assignment while going above and beyond.
