“I hope I seduced you,” Haider Ackermann stated to the scrum of reporters backstage after he debuted his first assortment for Tom Ford on Wednesday evening in Paris. He definitely set the temper within the mirrored inside of the Pavillon Vendôme with low lighting, plush seating and potent dry martinis. “The home of Ford is all about self-importance. It’s a egocentric second but it surely’s additionally a fantastic second,” he went on.
Ford, who got here out to assist, handpicked Ackermann for the function, which was vacated by Peter Hawkings lower than a yr after he stepped in following Ford’s exit in 2023. And whereas Hawkings, a veteran of the model, spent his tenure turning out close to facsimiles of Ford’s work — and dressing like him, too — Ackermann reinterpreted it, bringing in a little bit of himself.
There are similarities between the designers: seduction certainly; tailoring, too, and in addition a fixation with posture and the way one carries themself in garments — Ford being ramrod straight with swimsuit as armor, and Ackermann being extra sci-fi statuesque and liquid linear, à la his muse Tilda Swinton.
The gathering featured a little bit of each, as Ackermann aimed to construct on the quick legacy of the Tom Ford model and the cult of persona behind it, to raise the style class to the extent of success of The Estée Lauder Cos. magnificence facet of the enterprise.
The present began with sportswear that had a pointy ease and plenty of leather-based, together with leather-based T-shirts and haute sweats. Certainly, the right cropped attractive sweatshirt over low-slung liquidy bias skirt barely clinging to a naked hip with a thin black belt was in all probability the strongest look of the gathering and probably the most true marriage of each designers. It hummed with want, as did a siren-red snakeskin coat matched to a purple lacquered lip, even when they didn’t come on as sturdy as Ford’s personal designs.
From there, Ackermann went into tailoring, pumping out ’80s-killer enterprise pinstripe and silk jacquard fits accessorized with white lapel flowers, skinny neckties, or polka dot scarves, and luxurious morning-after gown coats. He additionally tuned into the flashy acid colours and pastels that have been perennial Ford favorites, reducing modern skinny girls’s fits and giving them his personal signature slim, pinched shoulders.
Ford’s designs have been an everyday presence on the purple carpet, so Ackermann confirmed a lot of robes with various levels of provocation, from a sky blue column sliced down the facet revealing the bare torso in stride, to a covered-up lavender fringe confection, to a entrance slit type densely embroidered to resemble an crocodile disguise.
That trace of one thing untamed felt worthy of exploration. As Ackermann settles into the function, certainly he’ll let unfastened a little bit extra, and produce the Timothée Chalamet-red carpet-halter prime fringe of his personal model persona into this one. However for a primary outing, it was strong, and judging by the enthusiastic standing ovation from all sides — Ford, Gildo Zegna of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group that has the license for the model, Daphne Guinness and Jared Leto included — the love affair with Ackermann is simply starting.
