Inspired by a Kennedy yacht, Tod’s latest collection steers into summer
President John F. Kennedy was, among many other things, a keen bridge player. In his downtime, he’d often deal himself in — usually during those long, languid weekends in Hyannisport, where the Kennedy family’s much-loved motor yacht, Marlin, would cut quietly through the Cape Cod waters.
It feels fitting, then, that Tod’s latest collection — an ode to that very same 52-footer — includes a supple leather playing cards case among its belts, bags and boat shoes. Tanned brown and bearing the Marlin name, it’s a suitably polished travel companion for card players such as Kennedy — and for those who prefer their decks firmly on deck.
Marlin launched almost a century ago, in 1930, and was later bought by patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy in 1952. A firm favourite of the Kennedy ‘fleet’, it became the family’s regular cruiser, hosting leisurely get-togethers and holiday weekend outings in eastern Massachusetts. Today, it enjoys similarly easy-going sojourns: in 1998, Tod’s chairman Diego Della Valle purchased Marlin, and has spent almost 30 years sailing it around the waters of its new home, the Italian Tyrrhenian Sea.
Della Valle also commissioned a complete restoration when he bought the mahogany-and-oak vessel, returning Marlin to its grand mid-century glory. And, like the boat’s brass hardware and deeply cushioned upholstery, the new Marlin range from Tod’s is suffused and stitched through with only the most luxurious and hard-wearing of materials.
Paying homage to the Kennedys’ waterfront enclave in Massachusetts, there’s also a subtle Ivy League thread running through the collection. A cotton piqué polo has contrasting stripes on its ribbed collar and cuffs, a baseball cap features an adjustable leather strap and hand-embroidered monogram, and a simple crisp cotton shirt is available in bright white and with a breathable weave.
And all pieces — from the shirt to the silk foulard, which bears a stylised image of Marlin — are rendered in the palette of the boat itself. Think sea-bottle greens, canvas whites and oyster creams, not to mention the burnished gold-browns of a yacht’s teak deck. The Marlin bomber epitomises these nautical nods, with a technical cotton construction, pockets and collar trimmed in soft nappa leather and a sailor’s knot tied to its zip pull. Even that playing cards case, once opened, reveals a lining of deep Marlin green — like a flash of sea below varnished decks.
But no boat-inspired collection — or indeed any collection from Tod’s — would be complete without a signature shoe. The Marlin boat shoes, which feature a printed image of the vessel on the insole, are cut from soft natural-grained calfskin leather and, on the heel of their wraparound rubber outsoles, feature the signature raised pebbles of Tod’s iconic ‘Gommino’ loafer. Massachusetts, meet Marche.
They’re the anchor point of the entire collection; admittedly handsome in a single-toned brown, but entirely emblematic of Marlin in their bolder colourway — a combination of brown, white and green. And this particular design, especially when combined with its long, low profile, gently lifted forefoot and continuous sweep from heel to toe, bears more than a passing resemblance to the boat itself.
Like Marlin’s signature colours, calfskin leather also resurfaces across the collection. There are tabs and tags on the trousers and jackets, as well as a sophisticated canvas-and-leather shopping bag, its structure more tightly engineered than a yacht’s reinforced hull, finished with two flat handles and another of those nautical cord zip pulls.
Add to that Tod’s ‘Greca’ belt, adjustable in robust elastic canvas but fastened with a leather interlocking buckle, and an elegant two-glass holder, crafted from calfskin, snap-closed and stamped with the Tod’s x Marlin emblem, and we’re brought back — as neatly as a quietly won game of bridge — to that playing cards case. As with the shoes, shirts and other accessories in the collection, it deals the perfect combination of simple pleasures, slow rhythms and strong artisanal character. JFK would certainly approve.
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