“I like to imagine my moves within the rooms that Tom Ford built as a dance,” said Haider Ackermann. This pleasant metaphor for fashion creative direction was delivered pre-recorded, in a note that accompanied these recently-readied photos of a resort collection glimpsed in the company’s Milan showroom way back in June. So far, Ackermann has been dedicating his Big Designer Energy to the runway shimmying of his mainline shows in Paris.
Yet even without any live movement, interaction, or context to frame it, this resort package generated some tempo. Its most urgent element was the insistent percussion of commercial imperative: this collection and its menswear partner have been timed to go on sale very shortly after this review drops. Ackermann’s note spoke of the “unremitting verticality” of his notion of Tom Ford’s “beautiful creatures” and there was for sure a consistently elegant elongation to the silhouettes of his Fordian classics remixed with signature electric color accents and the occasional strong shoulder.
Gestural flourishes included the bronze croc embossed silk fabric used in some tailoring pieces, the tuxedo-lapel off-the-shoulder neckline on a (what looked like) black velvet gown, the Bengal stripe and plain piped day pajama suits, and a bib-front suede shirt-skirt. There were richly tanned black leather looks featuring ergonomically sleek paneling and pockets. There were a lot of shirting lapels turned upwards and shirting buttons opened downwards—an archetypal Ackermann routine—on tailoring in wool and colored polka dot silks. “There is an ambiguity which is noble and beautiful,” wrote Ackermann of this appealing resort proposal.
