TOD’S Legacy – TOD’S Academy x CSM
Carolina Anzalone looks at how TOD'S and CSM joined together to make the future look more fashionable
When London Fashion Week opened on the 19th of February, TOD’S launched an exclusive initiative to celebrate young creatives and their innovative ideas. The project, TOD’S legacy, gathered together 35 designers from all parts of the globe to share with us a new and modern point of view on TOD’S core values and codes. The importance behind an initiative such as this lays in the support and promotion of the development of innovative ideas and fresh concepts from a new generation of creatives graduating into perhaps the most challenging work environment in recent memory. This is why the project is being run in conjunction with one of the UK’s most prestigious fashion schools, Central Saint Martins, and all the talent being nurtured under its roof.
ADAM ELYASSE
The TOD’S Academy itself is a cauldron of ideas based out of the Marche region, the location of the luxury Italian brand’s HQ. The Academy is a place that has been created especially for creative students, with the aim of supporting them to realise their creative dreams, design products and learn valuable techniques alongside many of the TOD’s artisans. In these crazy times, it’s heartening to see just how TOD’s promptly answered the call for a lifeline by actively seeking out the next generation and offering incredible scholarship opportunities to 35 talented designers.
ANDREJ GRONAU
The main focal point of the initiative revolves around eco-friendly choices and practices that are already a complementary part of the TOD’S ethos. Each student was tasked to reinterpret the TOD’S iconic ‘D Bag’, ‘Gommino,’ and ‘T Timeless’, embracing the brand’s codes while merging it with their own creative spirits. The students were encouraged to use different techniques that could evolve in innovative ways: patchwork with different textures, embroidery or even the deconstruction of a product using their own initiative.
ANDREW LA CASSE
The overall creative process was guided by famous mentors like the fashion designers Simone Rocha and Charles Jeffrey as well as fashion taste-makers like Hamish Bowles, Gianluca Longo, Emanuele Farneti, Simone Marchetti, Sara Mower and Alexander Fury. The final result of this innovative project came with the personal interpretations of the concept of ‘legacy’ from each designer and what that meant in terms of the cultural and creative baggage that had to be discarded or used – as well as their own personal legacies, like family.
This is a beautiful project that supports students and at the same time brings unusual and innovative points of view to Tod’s. Thanks to all the mentors who helped us and thanks to Central Saint Martins and Fabio Piras for their precious contribution – Diego Della Valle, President of Tod’s Group.
TORISHEJU DUMI
For more information on the TOD’S Legacy project click here.
Click here to read our last feature on TOD’S
