At a certain point in the talk, Diego Della Valle (pictured, Imagoeconomica) feels compelled to counterbalance the compliments he receives from Stefania Lazzaroni, general manager of Altagamma. Tod’s CEO, for example, acknowledges his mistakes on digital: “Years ago, I thought that luxury, which is based on exclusivity, had little to do with such a horizontal tool”. Della Valle now makes amends: “I had to change my mind”. But he keeps the alarm threshold high: beware of throwing yourself away by chasing the trendy topics of the web.
Digital mistakes
The frame of the interview is the Altagamma Observatory. Della Valle, as we were saying, acknowledges that he made mistakes in his initial assessments of the digital. “The advantage of digital tools is being able to know the results in real time,” he explains. “Thirty years ago, it took four seasons to assess the quality of a project. But managing this ability to live in the moment also requires method. In recent times we have witnessed a radical change,” he says, “and we have to be very attentive to the changing world. But we must not lose our references”. In what sense?“We have an advantage: people want to know about Made in Italy,” he replies. “Ours are values that must be translated with an appropriate language. Not with the dusty provincialism of Italian luxury, but with a stylistic value”.
Not to be wasted
The reference is to the turmoil in luxury, to the series of capsules and collaborations that come onto the market at an almost-daily pace. “In the Tod’s group, we are adapting the codes to the new needs of consumers,” says Della Valle, “but in a way that does not compromise the values and origins of the individual brand”. Yes, because this is the central point when the web returns updated data to the marketing offices on a daily basis: “The values of Made in Italy should not be lost,” he concludes. “We do not want to undermine the soul just to follow the moment”.
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