A New Tom Ford? Haider Ackermann’s Debut Proves Seduction Still Reigns
Haider’s Tom Ford debut felt like a beautiful stranger at a party: sharp, elusive, and impossible to stop thinking about
The art of seduction, reimagined
Seduction isn’t loud. It lingers. A glance, a shimmer under low lights, a whisper instead of a proclamation.
Haider Ackermann understands this, and for his debut as Tom Ford’s creative director, he wrapped the Fall/Winter 2025 collection in that exact energy—smooth, charged, and unapologetically indulgent.
It started with leather, like all good things do.
Double-breasted and belted, or cut into sharp biker jackets that could belong to a man or a woman or a version of David Bowie in a world where Ziggy Stardust still breathes.
The palette—unexpected. Pastels that melt against the skin and high-shine silks that caught the light with the same nonchalance as an expensive afterthought.
It wasn’t just a Tom Ford collection. It was a Haider Ackermann one too.
A meeting of two aesthetics
“We both share the same reference, yet we’re two very different people,” Haider said before the show.
“However, we do have the same aesthetic and sensibilities, so it wasn’t a complicated exercise. It became a permeation of who I might be, with perhaps more vanity than I actually have—but I embrace that part.”
That was the point. If Tom Ford built his world on the kind of sensuality that knows it’s being watched, Haider’s take was softer—less about the chase and more about the moment before it.
Hair swept back like it had been touched one too many times. The kind of tailoring that felt like slipping into something dangerous, but also deeply comfortable.
A David Bowie-inspired dream
There was something cinematic in the way it all moved.
The models drifted down the runway like beautiful phantoms from a ‘70s fever dream, their silhouettes both masculine and delicate, sculpted and effortless.
There was a strong imagery of David in it—the mythology of him, the genderless swagger, and the ability to be a thousand people at once and yet remain singular.
And that’s what Haider does best. He understands that fashion is about looking good, feeling untouchable, and being desired.
“Mr. Tom Ford has always been about seduction,” he mused.
“So, if I manage to seduce the crowd tonight, then I’ll know I’m on the right path. Hopefully.”
He did. The room felt it. The clothes breathed it.
And somewhere, in the space between past and present, Tom Ford’s legacy found itself in hands that know exactly what to do with it.
Courtesy Tom Ford
