Eye: Liu Wen + Vittoria Ceretti Headline Tod's SS 2019 Campaign, Lensed By Craig McDean As Tod's Sales Freefall
Top models Vittoria Ceretti + Liu Wen are styled by Fabien Baron for Tod’s Spring/Summer 2019 campaign, lensed by Craig McDean.
Tod’s, which also owns the Hogan and Vivier brands, has built a billion-dollar business selling chic leather loafers worn by royals and Hollywood stars, WSJ wrote last Friday. But the high-end artisan brand is struggling for relevance among younger consumers. Compared to the on-fire Italian brand Gucci, Tod’s is not on the radar for younger shoppers, generating new growth and even financial stability for luxury brands.
The brand gets less than 15% of its revenue from millennials, compared with 33% for Louis Vuitton, more than 50% for Gucci and 65% for Saint Laurent, according to investment bank UBS estimates.
“We aren’t going to chase millennials,” Diego Della Valle, Tod’s chairman and majority shareholder, said in the WSJ interview at his villa in Casette d’Ete, a small town on Italy’s Adriatic coast. At most, he says, Tod’s is aiming at the older end of the age group, currently ranging from 23 to 38 years old: “We want to get our clients when they’re 35 years old and then keep them.”
Net income at Tod’s has declined for five straight years, after previously advancing every year for a decade. The stock has sunk 70% since 2013 and is hovering near a 10-year low. Diego Della Valle insists that selling out to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering Co. or newly-named Capri Holdings (previously Michael Kors Holdings) is not on his radar.
