Italian leather goods and lifestyle label Tod’s has announced a new collaboration with former Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz for a new range of accessories to hit the market in the summer. The collaboration will be part of Tod’s Factory, a new initiative launched by the Italian brand last September as a “lab” to test and try new ideas and partnerships.
“The T Factory project is a new business model for our group,” says Tod’s chairman, Diego Della Valle. “We are in the high-quality luxury business, we are in handmade products, we are an Italian lifestyle. That’s our DNA. At the same time, we want to do a lot of experiments. This is the big support to the original products.”
T Factory collaborations will not only be limited to fashion design. The brand also recently collaborated with Paris-based architect and interior designer India Mahdavi to turn Tod’s latest concept store in London’s Chelsea into the Sloane Street Apartment, a lifestyle space that offers the comfort of home.
“T Factory is like a lab where we do many things. Some are interesting, some are not, but what we try to do are very modern things. The next collaboration may be with an Asian designer around the concept of sustainability,” adds the Italian native.
Elbaz will be the second designer to collaborate with Tod’s at the Factory after No 21 and Rochas designer Alessandro Dell’Acqua, whose reinterpretations of the Tod’s DNA can be seen in stores now.
The Moroccan-Israeli Elbaz has been largely out of the public eye since he was unceremoniously ousted from Lanvin, where he presided from 2001 to 2015.
He bounced back into the limelight at last September’s New York Fashion Week with his playful collaboration with LeSportsac. The new T Factory project started off as banter between old friends about a year ago.
“We’ve known each other a long time and we have a lot of mutual respect for each other. I consider him an iconic designer, but more than that, he’s a visionary, a man with a long-term point of view. About a year ago, we decided that now is the time to do something with a special vision in accessories,” Della Valle says.
“Without any stress, he worked a lot in the factory, staying in the quarters day and night. He loved working with the young people and they loved him; the young look up to him as a [fashion] god.
“He loves to work around our quality and our heritage with his point of view, and I think he loves to work with the team that was with him for a long time. And now we are ready. I’m very excited about the results.”
While the collection is still very much under wraps, Della Valle promises it will be out before three months is up. “When Alber is ready, when he’s presenting the collection, you’ll find it very interesting.”
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