Milan is on fire this season with major debuts at Missoni, Etro and Ferragamo while Bottega Veneta’s designer is still new and Versace has a new design team. Somewhat under the radar, Walter Chiapponi has been working on a major rehaul of the Tod’s brand and this season he made a major statement by showing his new collection in Milan’s HangarBicocca which houses master artist Anselm Kiefer’s monumental installation “The Seven Heavenly Palaces”. And Chiapponi operated on a similar scale by opening the show with Carla Bruni, closing it with Naomi Campbell and letting Michael Gaubert work his soundscape magic while sending out a perfectly judged 90’s inspired fashion collection. It was monumental in scale and felt like a new beginning at Tod’s, which no longer just sells shoes and bags but has jettisoned into serious ready to wear territory with a proper collection. It seems that Diego Della Valle has finally found the right designer to realize his dream of owning the Italian Hermès.

What’s remarkable?

Chiapponi has a very light hand when it comes to incorporating Tod’s DNA, the gommino, into his clothes. The ballerinas with gommino detail as well as the arm padding on his outerwear looked cool and not forced. Tod’s needs to be anchored in Italian lifestyle but not too methodically as in prior years with different designers.

The clothes?

The Tod’s pieces are mostly utilitarian inspired for men and whiff a bit military while for women the focus is on single pieces like slouchy leather skirts and long sleeve dresses. The open kummerbund detail at the waist refreshed the mostly natural shoulder silhouettes. For women the oversize leather jackets with skirts and clingy slip dresses were standout while the red leather coat on Greta Hofer provided a good Belle du Jour frisson. Chiapponi’s color palate of beige and brown and off whites fit perfectly with Kiefer’s sculptures.

Walter Chiapponi, creative director of Tod’s

Alessandro Michele at Gucci has a similar task as Chiapponi at Tod’s but for him it’s about the second rebirth of the brand. His first years at the house rewrote the rules of luxury fashion and have turned Gucci into the Italian equivalent of France’s Louis Vuitton. A phenomenal worldwide success anchored in diversity, equality, beauty and an ethos of slightly costumey fashion collections with a tailored edge. So it’s not a surprise that after a moment of brand heat generators like working the hack with Demna at Balenciaga and then a collab with adidas, he is now returning to the roots of his Gucci fashion adventure with highly personal clothes. To underline the point of severe individuality, he cast only identical twins and had a classical music soundtrack with a narrating voice by Marianne Faithfull that emphasized that even they are not alike.

The clothes?

There was a strong Chinoiserie element to the collection with many cheongsam-inspired dresses, severe tailoring and a good portion of rave culture party clothes in bright colors. The key idea for tailoring were fishermen’s boot style pants, which evoked a built in garter belt. Michele still romps through different era wardrobes and costumes but his mission of matching look and model for ultimate personal expression is still very much at the forefront and keeps his oeuvre fresh. Judging from the sales, the second turnaround by CEO Marco Bizzarri and Michele seems to be work.

The core of it all?

From his debut men’s collection, Michele made it clear that his biggest drive is to bring back beauty to fashion. Today’s casting of more than a hundred identical twins on the runway and the finale that united them was so mindbogglingly beautiful that it left the audience speechless and provided one of the first true fashion moments of the season.