Haider Ackermann is the new creative director of Tom Ford. Ackermann’s first collection will be shown at Paris Fashion Week in March 2025.
“It is with tremendous pride that I will seek to honor the legacy of Tom Ford, a man I have long admired and have the utmost respect for,” Ackermann said in a statement provided by the brand. “I am much looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Ackermann succeeds the British designer and longtime Tom Ford understudy Peter Hawkings, who left the role in July.
Fashion fans on social media immediately rejoiced at the news, as did one very important observer: Tom Ford himself, who retired in 2023 from his namesake company.
“I have long been a great fan of Haider’s work,” said Ford 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. We share many of the same historical references, and I could not be more excited to see what he does with the brand.”
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Added Tom Ford president and CEO Guillaume Jesel, “Haider stands out as one of the world’s most visionary and inspiring talents in fashion. He draws on his deep affinity for global culture and the arts to create arresting fashion and memorable emotional connections. He is the ideal steward to usher Tom Ford into the future.”
In recent years, the Colombian-French designer’s name has been routinely floated for just about every open CD job in the business, precisely because he is renowned for his deep creativity and intriguing wells of inspiration. Ackermann hasn’t been atop a luxury house since 2018, when his brief but celebrated tenure at Berluti came to an end. His similarly beloved eponymous brand, where he sharpened his vision of sexy, eccentric tailoring and vibrantly-hued menswear inspired by his extensive world travels, went on hiatus in 2020.
More recently, Ackermann’s comeback seemed underway when he guest-designed a ravishing couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. And in May, Ackermann was appointed creative director of Canada Goose.
Though it felt like the whole industry was rooting for Ackermann, could his move be chalked up to the Timothée Chalamet effect? The actor, an Ackermann devotee who wore a cream Berluti tuxedo to the 2018 Oscars, and then proceeded to call the designer whenever he wanted a daring backless or sparkling or silky red carpet getup, noticeably developed a penchant for slick Tom Ford tailoring on a recent press tour.
In any case, you can bet that Chalamet will be all-in for Ackermann-era Tom Ford. As for Tom Ford, who distanced himself from his namesake label when he wore Saint Laurent to this year’s Met Gala? “I suspect that I will be the first on my feet to applaud after [Ackermann’s] show in March,” Ford said.
