President and CEO of luxury label Tod’s, Diego Della Valle comes to India to learn about the country. He talks to Archana Jahagirdar.
Is Gwyneth Paltrow big in India?” asks Diego Della Valle, president and CEO of Tod’s, one of the few labels that is still considered to be true luxury, as he sits at the head of a lunch table that includes besides yours truly, two of his associates. Valle’s question isn’t the idle chatter of an extremely polite Italian. Valle means business in a way few luxury goods company heads, who have been coming to India in the last couple of years to set up shop and gauge the great Indian market, do.
Valle knows that if he is to sell as well as he does elsewhere in the world his famed products, he needs to understand India and he is willing to ask and listen. Hence the Paltrow question as she features in Tod’s current ad campaign and Valle is wondering about her efficacy in the Indian market to sell super-expensive hand bags.
Maybe this is among probable other qualities that have made Valle so successful in the luxury business. The brand started out as a small shoe factory at the beginning of the last century. Then Valle’s father Dorino Della Valle started developing the brand in the 1940s that set the foundation on which the junior Valle, Diego, built on. The story, well-known and told almost every time Valle is interviewed, is that it was he who came up with the idea of a signature shoe and in late 1970, came up with a luxury moccasin which was, from then on, to be known as the gommino. And, again as legend has it, Valle picked up the name Tod’s from an American phonebook and an iconic brand was born.
The gommino, with its trademark 133-rubber pebbles on the sole, has since evoked many poetic articles (all one has to do is Google it) and continues to be a bestseller for the company. In 1997, Valle, once again, with remarkable foresight, decided to take the company forward with a bag collection (the afore mentioned Paltrow is selling them right now for the brand) which has been almost as successful and today, the company has a turnover of Euros 657 million and has grown at 14.7 per cent from 2007. Leather remains the company’s leit motif and a lot of effort is put into buying the most exclusive and highest quality leathers for their products.
Valle, as he waits for his food, insists that we have some red wine: “Italian food needs good wine,” he says. And he isn’t finished with his questioning. “Who are the biggest actors in Hindi films?” he wants to know. Even as I try to answer his queries, asked with great charm, I try to fit in my questions. Will India take to Tod’s? “In India, like Japan, people understand quality which is good for us. This is the right moment for us. Indian people know the world very well and they speak English very well,” he answers with just the right amount of praise for the country.
The recession/downturn that most of the world is in the grip of, doesn’t bother Valle too much. He says, when asked if luxury has any place in a recessionary world, “We saw post 9/11 that people didn’t want to buy too many things but wanted real and useful products which is also a dream product. It was my grandfather, father and my idea to have useful luxury. We are luxury, not fashion. And there are enough people in the world who can afford luxury.”
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Tod’s, like many other luxury goods companies, makes much of its provenance. Everything in the Tod’s product range is manufactured in Italy, the country of its origin. Explaining the importance of the “Made in Italy” tag to his label, Valle says using just the right analogy, “It’s about tradition. When I come to India, people ask me to buy pashmina for them as it is the best here. It’s the same with Italy and leather.
Italy is the best country for leather. You have to love the smell of leather. If you don’t love the product, it will be difficult to make it. Luxury is like religion.” And then adds pragmatically, “Cheap price equals cheap product. I would only look outside Italy if it’s a value-add but would never move out of there for the leather.”
Many of Tod’s competitors are brands that tout luxury but have moved far from the basic premise of luxury and instead today are selling assembly line products. Does that make Valle and those like him in Italy uncomfortable? Is Italy debating the true meaning of luxury? Answers Valle, “There is a debate that is going on in my country as to where luxury is headed. It is important to be open and honest as to where you are manufacturing the products. At Tod’s, we are clear that we will not change our strategy.”
The wine has been drunk, the food polished off and espresso dregs left at the bottom of white prinstine cups . Valle still has many questions to ask but as he hurries off to other engagements, he says happily, “I don’t know about you, but I got a good interview out of you.”