Meet Matteo Tamburini, the Man Rebuilding Tod’s From the Inside
Born down the road from Tod's own home region, Matteo Tamburini is the creative director taking the house that was always in his blood.
Before Matteo Tamburini ever sketched a shoe, he watched his parents put their own shoes on. For special occasions only, the good Tod’s pairs were pulled out for whatever counted as an event in Urbino, the small hilltop town in Le Marche where he grew up, in the same stretch of Italy Tod’s itself calls home. “Tod’s has been in my DNA,” he’s said, “ever since I grew up seeing my father and mother wearing Tod’s shoes.”
He’s been the house’s creative director since December 2023, running both womenswear and menswear. He got there after nearly two decades helping other people make their mark. He trained under Marco Zanini at Rochas and Schiaparelli, moved to Emilio Pucci in 2015, then spent six years at Bottega Veneta as head designer of leather, outerwear and tailoring, working through three separate creative directors there, Tomas Maier, Daniel Lee and Matthieu Blazy.
His debut for Tod’s in February 2024 happened in the middle of a Milan downpour, staged inside the city’s working tram depot. Silver runways were aid between decades-old trams still in daily service. It happened the same week that LVMH and L Catterton bought a 46% stake in Tod’s Group, so his first show doubled, whether he’d planned it or not, as a statement of confidence for the brand’s new owners.
His approach runs on what he calls “Artisanal Intelligence”, where the craft behind the garment is made visible rather than hidden away. His most recent Fall 2026 show heavily worked with the concept, opening with coral makers, embroiderers and fan makers before a single garment appeared. This was followed by geometric leather panels folded to move like silk, sculpted capes and a run of shrunken, washed leather jackets that felt more modern than anything Tod’s has produced in years.
Tamburini’s also said he refuses to design for specific markets, telling WWD’s Global Fashion & Beauty Summit that he starts from a feeling and lets it translate everywhere at once, rather than adjusting a collection region by region. It’s a bold mindset in an industry thats obsessed with localisation, but also part of why WWD named Tod’s International Brand of the Year this year.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Tod’s
Words: Roisin Teeling @roisinteeling
