A Spring collection that s more than half leather and nobody bats an eye? Two reasons: first, the increasing seasonlessness of the collections. Fashion is global, and when it s spring in half the world, it s fall in the other. We ve seen fur on the Milan catwalks—lots of it—so why not leather? Second, we were at Tod s, home of the famous pebble-sole driving moccasin and the world s finest leather artisans. Much of the leather on creative director Alessandra Facchinetti s runway was almost weightless. Those tiny laser-cut holes on the airy tank dress in look number one? Made with the very same technique used to create the sole of the driving shoes. In the case of a creamy biker jacket, the leather was more substantial, if not quite rugged with the color-blocked flowers at the shoulders.
Facchinetti was thinking about gardens. There was a lovely hand-stenciled floral print on a crisp pantsuit (the same silhouette looked great in sunflower yellow), and a palm-tree motif on the full cotton skirt worn with a snug white tee. That s an outfit you can count on seeing out and about in 2015; it was pretty without being saccharine—a quality that sums up this collection. Extra credit for the jewelry: necklaces and cuffs that set small slabs of polished marble amid large crystals in sculptural swirls of gold wire. The designer reported that Tod s will be selling it next spring.
