STYLE Edit: Tod’s expands No_Code from sneakers to ready-to-wear – the project’s creative director Yong Bae-seok took inspiration from the US Ivy League for the capsule collection
- When Yong visited Silicon Valley, he appreciated the aesthetics and lifestyle on US university campuses like Stanford – and the experience informed his latest collection
- The result is Tod’s first No_Code ready-to-wear collection of hoodies, T-shirts and trousers engineered for comfort and style that’s inspiring in its simplicity
Think of Tod’s, and you think of a brand that draws on a long history of classic Italian design. But the company has also always moved with the times and enthusiastically embraced innovation – something that has never been more on display than in its No_Code project.
It’s the work of No_Code creative director Yong Bae-seok, an industrial designer from South Korea who has long championed an aesthetic that artfully combines comfort with style. In the new collection, he puts the emphasis firmly on the relaxed and informal. Specifically, he’s gone back to the well where leisurewear is concerned, and drawn his inspiration from the original home of the look – the world of US universities, particularly those in the Ivy League, as well as California’s Stanford.
He became interested in US student fashion when he visited California to research the book Silicon Valley No_Code Life, which was published in April 2021. He has since channelled that experience to create a collection that combines functionality with style, and that features a range of long and short trousers, T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, all in the simple monochromatic shades of black and white.
Each is enhanced by the very Tod’s touch of using cotton in two different densities, with a diagonal armour on the inside that ensures the pieces retain their proportions. Many of them are also emblazoned with a mission statement that tells you all you need to know about what makes the project so groundbreaking and distinctive: “Tod’s No_Code examines the changes in the contemporary society. It’s an hybrid project fusing international technology and Italian craftsmanship together.”
