24 WSJ. MAGAZINE
F. MARTIN RAMIN, STYLING BY ANNE CARDENAS
W
OMEN WHO get misty at the mention of
Alber Elbaz’s name—and there are many
in fashion circles—have been waiting for
the designer’s comeback since he was
pushed out at Lanvin in 2015. Rumors have swirled
each time there is a vacancy at a major house, but Elbaz
remains a free agent. There were bags and accessories
for LeSportsac, a fragrance with Editions de Parfums
Frédéric Malle and speaking engagements and men-
torships at schools like Florence’s Polimoda, the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Shenkar near
Tel Aviv, Elbaz’s own alma mater.
Now comes a capsule collection of shoes and bags by
Elbaz for the Italian brand Tod’s. Called Tod’s Happy
Moments by Alber Elbaz, the line debuts in Tod’s bou-
tiques, on its website and in department stores in July,
with a second batch coming in September.
Though there are no clothes, the Tod’s line, with six
groups of shoes and bags,
totaling almost 100 dif-
ferent items, is the most
ambitious project from
Elbaz in the past four years.
“I needed to take a break
from fashion,” he explains
at Tod’s headquarters in
Le Marche, Italy. “The
industry is changing, and
I’m questioning the whole
métier. Who are designers
and what are we doing?”
Happy Moments is the
second design project from
a new Tod’s initiative called Tod’s Factory, a creative
hub separate from Tod’s main lines. The fi rst off ering
was a limited collection of mostly jackets and shoes
by Italian designer Alessandro Dell’Acqua. Tod’s
Factory also includes retail experiments like Tod’s
Library in New York’s Hudson Yards, which displays
the brand’s entire current catalog of products, and
Tod’s Sloane Apartment in London, a boutique with
a residential feel.
“When I started this project,” Elbaz says, “I didn’t
want to change Tod’s DNA. I didn’t want to change the
soul of the product. I changed the sole.” He’s referring
to the nubby rubber sole of Tod’s trademark shoe, the
Gommino. It’s a soft driving moccasin that helped to
put the company, which now has yearly sales of over
$566 million, on the map in the ’80s, when Diego Della
Valle took over as CEO of the company his grandfa-
ther founded in the 1920s. (Since then, Della Valle
has turned Tod’s into a publicly traded group of four
brands—Hogan, Fay, Tod’s and Roger Vivier—with just
over $1 billion in sales in 2018.)
In Elbaz’s collection, loafer uppers in brightly col-
ored calfskin and neoprene sit atop chunky rubber
soles. Loafers come in metallics lacquered on the bot-
tom to match the top. To complement the shoes, some
shoulder bags also come in neoprene, a material nei-
ther Elbaz nor Tod’s artisans, many of whom have been
with the company for over 20 years, had worked with.
“When I told them I wanted sneaker soles, suddenly
they didn’t understand English, and then neoprene was
like, ‘Oh, no!’” Elbaz says. “But the people in the atelier
are creative and loyal. When
they start seeing results is
when you get respect.”
Della Valle built the
Tod’s headquarters in 1998
in Brancadoro to integrate design, storage and pro-
duction facilities. Designed by Della Valle’s architect
wife, Barbara Pistilli, it is decorated with works by
Anselm Kiefer and Vanessa Beecroft, among others,
and includes a gym and a restaurant as well as a school
for the children of the facility’s 900 employees. “When I
visit other companies, like new-media ones,” Della Valle
says, “everyone wants to show me, no more offi ces, no
more desks. It’s like fi sh in an aquarium. I prefer a win-
dow, good light, a tree, pictures of family.” Tod’s invests
one percent of net profi ts in philanthropic initiatives,
supporting the La Scala theater in Milan and the res-
toration of the Colosseum in Rome. In 2017, a year
after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake devastated central
Italy, Della Valle built a factory in the aff ected town of
Arquata del Tronto, which now employs 50.
Della Valle and Elbaz have struck up a friendship; as
Elbaz was leaving Brancadoro to return to Paris, Della
Valle gave him some parting gifts: a case of wine, a
case of grappa, some Sicilian pepper sauce and a crate
of bitter greens from his garden, tied with a bow.
“I fi nd [Diego] to be extremely smart,” Elbaz says.
“The discussion has honesty. What does it take to pro-
duce a col lect ion or a product? Is it just about ma rket i n g
and communications?” Elbaz says he is incubating a
fashion project of his own where he will continue to
work out these questions but did not give any further
details. He prefers to discuss what motivates him gen-
erally. “I always used to speak about love,” he says.
“Like, you love me, I love her, we love the dress. But
today I believe more in respect and trust.”
SKY HIGH
The best beauty and
wellness products for a top-
fl ight carry-on kit.
Clockwise from top: Slip Slipsilk Sleep
Mask; Susanne Kaufmann Rose
Water Mist; Doctor Rogers Restore
Healing Balm; Aesop Resurrection
Rinse-Free Hand Wash; de Mamiel
Altitude Oil; Herbivore jade facial
roller; Kypris Cerulean mask; Vive Sana
Serum Crema; LivOn Labs Lypo-Spheric
Vitamin C; Ursa Major Essential Face
Wipe. For details see Sources, page 102.
PINK LADY
From left : Elbaz’s illustrations;
a neoprene bag from the Tod’s
Happy Moments by Alber
Elbaz collection. For details
see Sources, page 102.
A HYDRATING
SPF, BECAUSE
SUN DAMAGE
CAN HAPPEN IN
FLIGHT.
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