Weeks after Peter Hawkings announced his departure from Tom Ford after just two seasons, the brand – which was acquired by Estée Lauder for a price of 2.8 billion dollars in 2022 – has announced his successor, Colombia-born French designer Haider Ackermann.
Though he has collaborated with both Canada Goose and Jean Paul Gaultier in recent years, the appointment marks something of a return to fashion for Ackermann, whose eponymous label held its last runway show during the A/W 2020 season. He also was briefly creative director of Berluti from 2016 to 2017.
‘It’s with tremendous pride that I will seek to honour the legacy of Tom Ford, a man I have long admired and have the utmost respect for,’ the designer said in a statement.
‘I have long been a great fan of Haider’s work. I find both his womenswear and menswear equally compelling,’ adds Ford. ‘He is an incredible colourist, his tailoring is sharp, and above all he is modern. We share many of the same historical references, and I could not be more excited to see what he does with the brand. I suspect that I will be the first on my feet to applaud after his show in March.’
Indeed, Ackermann’s insouciant, sensually charged vision of glamour – which often employed cut-outs to reveal the line of the model’s body – certainly has plenty in common with Tom Ford’s own designs, before he exited the label to pursue film projects in 2023. Both also drew inspiration from Yves Saint Laurent, where Ford was creative director in the early 2000s.
That said, Ackermann, who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp – the birthplace of the Antwerp Six – has a more avant-garde approach to design, oftentimes achieved through unexpected pattern-cutting and offbeat use of colour. His longtime muse is Tilda Swinton; it will be intriguing to see how she will fit into the Tom Ford world.
Tom Ford will not show during the upcoming S/S 2025 fashion week, which begins in New York on Friday (6 September), with Ackermann instead making his debut during the A/W 2025 shows in February.
