Zegna relaunches Tom Ford with Haider Ackermann

In one of the two big debuts of Paris Fashion Week, the Zegna Group effectively relaunched the house of Tom Ford with the first collection by Haider Ackermann presented with great anticipation on Wednesday night. And the initial response from the jury on the collection is in: It’s a hit.

The great and the good all gathered inside Pavillon Vendôme, a mid-sized show-space in central Paris, done up in Prussian gray mirrored walls with banquette seating and three runways.
 
“I knew how I was going to stage the show the first day I started this job,” revealed the ever-confident Haider.

Pre-show the atmosphere was palpable. Ford making a last-minute entrance in darkness, sitting between Jared Leto and Anna Wintour. At least he showed up. 
 
Eighteen months ago, when his former right hand man Peter Hawkins made his debut as designer at Tom Ford, Tom didn’t even show up. Cancelling his attendance at the last minute after Hawkins made some less than judicious criticisms of Ford in an article in the New York Times.
 
Haider was far more circumspect pre-show. And his collection was significantly stronger. Surely, Ackermann’s ego has never been blemished by a sense of false modesty, even if he has the reputation of being one of the less industrious designers of major talent. But one could only admire his decision pre-show to post a photo of himself in bed reading the Times, wrapped in a Tom Ford ad, on Instagram. Everyone loved that.

See catwalk

 
He kicked off the show with plenty of punch – hyper-ironed leather looks with a soupçon of transgression. All of them impeccably cut – razor-sharp perfectos for gals; taught biker jackets for guys; redingotes with matching leather tops for rockstars; surgeon’s coats for femme fatales.
 
He cut wool banker’s suits for tough girls; and double-face dressing gowns for Silicon Valley unicorn breeders. His best tailoring was a mohair double-breasted fop’s jacket held together with a safety pin and finished with a white silk rose.
 
The makeup was pale sinister spy, and the atmosphere moody with a modernist Hitchcockian soundtrack featuring Jóhan Jóhansson’s “Good Night, Day”. For evening, Haider draped with skill, but almost too reverentially towards the Ford DNA. Those of us who have attended a dozen or more Ackermann signature shows know he is capable of so much more.

See catwalk

That said, this was a powerful statement, and much needed by Zegna. It is important to realize that the Italian luxury group has placed a very large bet on the future of Tom Ford’s fashion house. In effect, it paid some $300 million for a 20-year license to Tom Ford’s fashion and accessories division, which was not ever noticeably profitable. The far larger beauty and fragrance business of Ford is owned by Estée Lauder.
 
But all told, this was a very good collection, even if not quite a great one. But that was more than enough to sense another palpable feeling at the show’s end. Relief that Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford should be a success.