Skip to main content
BoF Logo

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Tod's Turns to 'Factory' Project to Keep Pace With Fast-Moving Fashion Market

As more fashion brands adapt their strategies to the fast-moving market, Tod's will use multiple collections throughout the year to engage better with customers.
Tod's loafers | Source: Tod's
By
  • Reuters

MILAN, Italy — Italian luxury group Tod's will use multiple collections throughout the year to engage better with customers, chairman Diego Della Valle said on Friday, as more fashion brands adapt their strategies to the fast-moving market.

On Tuesday Moncler bid farewell to the catwalk, saying the way forward was to attract customers with new products each month, responding to the increasing pressure on fashion houses to offer more to their younger, internet-dependent and fickle clientele.

Della Valle explained that Tod's project — dubbed "Factory" in a nod to the New York art studio opened by Andy Warhol in the 1960s — began seven months ago and entails more collections during the year, as well as one-off limited edition collections created by different designers.

But the Italian entrepreneur, one of the first to signal the need to accelerate the pace of new product launches, did not say whether Tod's would totally stop doing runway shows.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The business model has changed, everything is more rapid, though in some sort of way more controllable," he said, speaking on the margins of Tod's 2018/19 Fall-Winter show in Milan.

He added that fashion groups could not "give news every six months" with just two traditional collections a year and that engaging in social networks — one of the main drivers of luxury consumption — needed to be paired with high-quality products.

Tod's reported a 3.1 percent fall in revenue for 2017 while many luxury goods rivals such as France's LVMH enjoyed a sales bounce thanks to a recovery in Chinese demand.

The Italian group, known for its Gommino loafers, said it would focus on its more classic lines of clothes and accessories in a strategy that could weigh on growth in the short term.

Part of the overhaul has involved a rejig of management — defined by Della Valle as a "consensual change" — with the replacement of long-serving chief executive Stefano Sincini with Bulgari sales executive Umberto Macchi di Cellere.

French label Roger Vivier, one of the group's brands, and whose founder is credited with inventing the stiletto heel, said this month that it was parting company with its long-time designer Bruno Frisoni.

By Sarah White; editor: David Goodman.

In This Article
Topics
Organisations
Location

© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Luxury
How rapid change is reshaping the tradition-soaked luxury sector in Europe and beyond.

Marine Serre: From Radical to Pragmatist

Serre, who grew sales by 20 percent in 2023, has been named Pitti Uomo’s next guest designer. She’s using the opportunity to show her men’s collection for the first time.


Who Gets to Buy a Birkin Bag?

Hermès’ elusive sales strategy is at the centre of a new legal challenge for the French luxury giant. BoF breaks down the practices under scrutiny and what the suit could mean for the fashion industry at large.


view more

Subscribe to the BoF Daily Digest

The essential daily round-up of fashion news, analysis, and breaking news alerts.

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections
© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections