“I hope I seduced you,” Haider Ackermann said to the scrum of reporters backstage after he debuted his first collection for Tom Ford on Wednesday night in Paris. He certainly set the mood in the mirrored interior of the Pavillon Vendôme with low lighting, plush seating and potent dry martinis. “The house of Ford is all about vanity. It’s a selfish moment but it’s also a beautiful moment,” he went on.
Ford, who came out to support, handpicked Ackermann for the role, which was vacated by Peter Hawkings less than a year after he stepped in following Ford’s exit in 2023. And while Hawkings, a veteran of the brand, spent his tenure turning out near facsimiles of Ford’s work — and dressing like him, too — Ackermann reinterpreted it, bringing in a bit of himself.
There are similarities between the designers: seduction surely; tailoring, too, and also a fixation with posture and how one carries themself in clothes — Ford being ramrod straight with suit as armor, and Ackermann being more sci-fi statuesque and liquid linear, à la his muse Tilda Swinton.
The collection featured a bit of both, as Ackermann aimed to build on the short legacy of the Tom Ford brand and the cult of personality behind it, to elevate the fashion category to the level of success of The Estée Lauder Cos. beauty side of the business.
The show started with sportswear that had a sharp ease and lots of leather, including leather T-shirts and haute sweats. Indeed, the perfect cropped sexy sweatshirt over low-slung liquidy bias skirt barely clinging to a bare hip with a skinny black belt was probably the strongest look of the collection and the most true marriage of both designers. It hummed with desire, as did a siren-red snakeskin coat matched to a red lacquered lip, even if they didn’t come on as strong as Ford’s own designs.
From there, Ackermann went into tailoring, pumping out ’80s-killer business pinstripe and silk jacquard suits accessorized with white lapel flowers, skinny neckties, or polka dot scarves, and lush morning-after robe coats. He also tuned into the flashy acid colors and pastels that were perennial Ford favorites, cutting sleek skinny women’s suits and giving them his own signature narrow, pinched shoulders.
Ford’s designs were a regular presence on the red carpet, so Ackermann showed lots of gowns with varying degrees of provocation, from a sky blue column sliced down the side revealing the naked torso in stride, to a covered-up lavender fringe confection, to a front slit style densely embroidered to resemble an crocodile hide.
That hint of something untamed felt worthy of exploration. As Ackermann settles into the role, surely he will let loose a little more, and bring the Timothée Chalamet-red carpet-halter top edge of his own brand personality into this one. But for a first outing, it was solid, and judging by the enthusiastic standing ovation from all sides — Ford, Gildo Zegna of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group that has the license for the brand, Daphne Guinness and Jared Leto included — the love affair with Ackermann is just beginning.
