Walter Chiapponi was born in Milan in 1978 and graduated from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan at the end of the 1990s. His fashion teacher there, Alessandro Dell'Acqua, spotted him, and their friendship led to his first job, in Dell'Acqua's studio.
In 2001 he became design director at Blumarine, working alongside its founder Anna Molinari on the label's romantic, floral womenswear until 2005. He then went to Paris as first assistant to Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, working on ready-to-wear and couture. Back in Italy from 2007, he worked in the studios of some of the country's leading houses: with Alessandra Facchinetti at Valentino, Frida Giannini at Gucci and Miuccia Prada at Miu Miu. In 2016 he took charge of the design studio at Bottega Veneta, under Tomas Maier and then Daniel Lee. Over these years he built his practice on leather, knitwear and ready-to-wear.
On 17 October 2019 Tod's appointed him creative director of its women's and men's collections, his first public creative-director role. His first collections, for autumn/winter 2020–21, were shown in January and February 2020, and the first included a patchwork coat made from unused leather offcuts. He brought a strong environmental approach and has described himself as an animal lover. During the pandemic the house made films with its artisans. His Tod's was built on softened Italian tailoring, washed natural fabrics, tactile leather and outerwear, and he widened its leather goods with reworkings of the Gommino driving shoe, among them the Winter Gommino and Gommino Bubble, and new pieces such as the Shirt Bag and the T-Box. Tod's announced on 12 July 2023 that he would leave by mutual agreement, and his final show, for Spring/Summer 2024, was held at the Laboratori Scala Ansaldo in Milan on 22 September 2023. Matteo Tamburini succeeded him.
In November 2023 he returned to Blumarine as creative director, succeeding Nicola Brognano, 22 years after he had first worked there. He showed one collection, Autumn/Winter 2024, in February 2024, and left in March 2024.
The exact dates of his Tod's shows and his departure come partly from TheFashionDB, a secondary database.