“I hope I seduced you,” Haider Ackermann mentioned to the scrum of reporters backstage after he debuted his first assortment for Tom Ford on Wednesday night time in Paris. He actually 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 vainness. It’s a egocentric second nevertheless it’s additionally a ravishing second,” he went on.
Ford, who got here out to assist, handpicked Ackermann for the position, 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 likewise a fixation with posture and the way one carries themself in garments — Ford being ramrod straight with go well with 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 brief legacy of the Tom Ford model and the cult of character behind it, to raise the style class to the extent of success of The Estée Lauder Cos. magnificence aspect of the enterprise.
The present began with sportswear that had a pointy ease and many leather-based, together with leather-based T-shirts and haute sweats. Certainly, the right cropped horny 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 essentially 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 had been perennial Ford favorites, slicing glossy skinny girls’s fits and giving them his personal signature slender, pinched shoulders.
Ford’s designs had been a daily 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 aspect 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 position, certainly he’ll let free a bit extra, and convey the Timothée Chalamet-red carpet-halter prime fringe of his personal model character into this one. However for a primary outing, it was stable, 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.