The Business of Fashion
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Haider Ackermann has been named creative director of Tom Ford, effective immediately. The Colombian-born, Paris-based designer succeeds Peter Hawkings — long-time design deputy of the label’s founder and namesake Tom Ford — who exited the brand suddenly in July after just two seasons in the top job.
Ackermann is a critically-acclaimed design talent known for his precise, sensual tailoring and trend-setting palette of dusty pastels. His recent roles include collaborations with Jean-Paul Gaultier — for whom he guest designed the French brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 haute couture collection — and Canada Goose, where he was named the outerwear maker’s first-ever creative director in May.
Prior to that, Ackermann helmed a namesake fashion label which shuttered during the pandemic and served as creative director of LVMH’s Berluti brand for three seasons in the late 2010s.
A travel-loving, affable bon vivant, Ackermann has long been a fixture of fashion galas and red carpets, where he is often accompanied by muses and celebrity clients including Tilda Swinton and Timothée Chalamet.
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Hawkings had been named creative director in a bid for continuity after Tom Ford sold the brand to longtime beauty partner Estée Lauder for $2.3 billion November 2022. The cosmetics giant in turn licensed its fashion business to Zegna, which already operated its menswear division, while eyewear was licensed to Marcolin.
Ackermann joins Tom Ford with its founder’s blessing. “I have long been a great fan of Haider’s work,” Ford said in a statement. “I find both his womenswear and menswear equally compelling. He is an incredible colorist, his tailoring is sharp, and above all he is modern.”
The designer will lead Tom Ford’s design teams from Paris, the brand. He will also continue in his role at Canada Goose on a part-time basis.
Licensee Zegna has high hopes for Tom Ford Fashion, with plans to open 50 retail stores and invest in lifting its womenswear business in line with massive brand awareness. Womenswear accounts for just one-third of the brand’s fashion revenues, which totalled €148.5 million ($165 million) in the first half of 2024, up 5 percent on an organic basis.
Ackermann arrives at Tom Ford during a broad slowdown for the luxury industry as China’s consumer economy remains in the doldrums and slowing growth and lingering inflation continue to pinch shoppers in the West.
Where Hawkings’ collections had leaned into late 90s and noughties nostalgia to revive excitement in Tom Ford — evoking its founders’ Gucci heyday — Ackermann is likely to make more radical updates to the brand with his crisp, minimalist silhouettes.
The brand will likely find itself competing for a top-end, fashion-forward client rather than the bourgeois wardrobe shopper it currently targets alongside heavyweights like Gucci, Celine and Saint Laurent. But can that niche drive sales on the scale of Estée Lauder and Zegna’s ambitions? Stay tuned.
