ハイダーアッカーマンによるトムフォードの魅惑的な調査

Of late, the indelibility of Tom Ford’s legacy has been front of mind – not to fashion insiders, but rather to the public at large. His is a name that comes up, inevitably, when online commentary roils about Demna’s ongoing reinvention of Gucci, given that Ford forged its modern identity first; more than one noted similarities between the spectacle of Anthony Vaccarello’s latest Saint Laurent outing and Tom Ford’s first and final shows for that maison over two decades ago. That these images are still resonant and recountable by a wide populace, in an era of fleeting TikTok attention spans, is something. Add to the list Haider Ackermann, who it seems has noted every Ford trick in the book. And, indeed, mastered them.

For Spring/Summer 2027, Ackermann wound things back, fittingly, to 1997, to that Gucci thong that curled a thousand lips, reiterated for her (skinny cut-out-and-about swimsuits, some with gravity-defying unsupported strapping) and him (blatant, buttcheek-baring thongs bottoming out jumpers). “Seduction is the pillar on which this house is built,” Ackermann stated. Dressed and undressed, this was a seductive show.

Ackermann is building his Ford around that idea. His catwalk was flanked with smoky mirrors, like a reflection on the tantalising seduction of fashion – namely, that it’s oft-promised and rarely delivered. But by contrast there’s a tangible and palpable pleasure to his clothes at Ford, to the slithering satins and touch-me feel-me cashmere, the rigid shoulders of tailoring melting into a fluid block, embracing the waist. And the presentation was the cruise-y take on catwalking Ackermann has established as his Tom Ford characteristic choreography, all genders sidling about eyeing both each other and the intimately huddled audience up, some even window-licking their own reflections in an onanistic, semi-clothed orgy. Voyeurism is a big part of fashion too, after all. 

Seduction, of course, comes in many forms and guises. There’s a great, relatively unknown story, about Tom Ford (the man) managing to persuade – seduce – male models into shaving half their head for a ten-minute fashion show. Ackermann knows his stuff: Guido did the same to a couple of guys this time, who came swaggering out half crew-cut, half cue-ball in low-slung army cottons, plunging shirts, and high-pulled boxers. Underwear was out in force – those thongs and swimsuits, high-waisted men’s briefs or a structured satin brassière in place of anything substantial and transparent knit skirts like X-rays onto lingerie beneath. Expanses of skin shifted to leather, sharply tailored or knotted in a big flat bow. This time, it was also much more real, with denims and cottons, easy poplin shirts and shorts. The seduction, here, of the everyday.

Does it work to run through the Ford-isms Ackermann shadowed here? There were those thongs, a redux of a 2002 sheer burgundy bodysuit that resembled a sunburn across the skin, a late-Nineties spotlight moment, and a couple of slithery ruby-red slit and bared dresses that reminded you of the red finale dresses from a 2003 Ford show with a rose-petal shower and tear-jerking soundtrack. Ackermann, in a similar fashion, jerks feeling out of his audience – desire? Maybe even lust. That’s a major achievement.

Ackermann himself summed it up best: “A gaze held a second too long. The trace of red in someone else’s lips. The feeling that something has happened, or is about to.” The most seductive thing can often be anticipation. Such as waiting for these clothes to arrive, to wrap around your own body. And, maybe, between your cheeks.

Of late, the indelibility of Tom Ford’s legacy has been front of mind – not to fashion insiders, but rather to the public at large. His is a name that comes up, inevitably, when online commentary roils about Demna’s ongoing reinvention of Gucci, given that Ford forged its modern identity first; more than one noted similarities between the spectacle of Anthony Vaccarello’s latest Saint Laurent outing and Tom Ford’s first and final shows for that maison over two decades ago. That these images are still resonant and recountable by a wide populace, in an era of fleeting TikTok attention spans, is something. Add to the list Haider Ackermann, who it seems has noted every Ford trick in the book. And, indeed, mastered them.

For Spring/Summer 2027, Ackermann wound things back, fittingly, to 1997, to that Gucci thong that curled a thousand lips, reiterated for her (skinny cut-out-and-about swimsuits, some with gravity-defying unsupported strapping) and him (blatant, buttcheek-baring thongs bottoming out jumpers). “Seduction is the pillar on which this house is built,” Ackermann stated. Dressed and undressed, this was a seductive show.

Ackermann is building his Ford around that idea. His catwalk was flanked with smoky mirrors, like a reflection on the tantalising seduction of fashion – namely, that it’s oft-promised and rarely delivered. But by contrast there’s a tangible and palpable pleasure to his clothes at Ford, to the slithering satins and touch-me feel-me cashmere, the rigid shoulders of tailoring melting into a fluid block, embracing the waist. And the presentation was the cruise-y take on catwalking Ackermann has established as his Tom Ford characteristic choreography, all genders sidling about eyeing both each other and the intimately huddled audience up, some even window-licking their own reflections in an onanistic, semi-clothed orgy. Voyeurism is a big part of fashion too, after all. 

Seduction, of course, comes in many forms and guises. There’s a great, relatively unknown story, about Tom Ford (the man) managing to persuade – seduce – male models into shaving half their head for a ten-minute fashion show. Ackermann knows his stuff: Guido did the same to a couple of guys this time, who came swaggering out half crew-cut, half cue-ball in low-slung army cottons, plunging shirts, and high-pulled boxers. Underwear was out in force – those thongs and swimsuits, high-waisted men’s briefs or a structured satin brassière in place of anything substantial and transparent knit skirts like X-rays onto lingerie beneath. Expanses of skin shifted to leather, sharply tailored or knotted in a big flat bow. This time, it was also much more real, with denims and cottons, easy poplin shirts and shorts. The seduction, here, of the everyday.

Does it work to run through the Ford-isms Ackermann shadowed here? There were those thongs, a redux of a 2002 sheer burgundy bodysuit that resembled a sunburn across the skin, a late-Nineties spotlight moment, and a couple of slithery ruby-red slit and bared dresses that reminded you of the red finale dresses from a 2003 Ford show with a rose-petal shower and tear-jerking soundtrack. Ackermann, in a similar fashion, jerks feeling out of his audience – desire? Maybe even lust. That’s a major achievement.

Ackermann himself summed it up best: “A gaze held a second too long. The trace of red in someone else’s lips. The feeling that something has happened, or is about to.” The most seductive thing can often be anticipation. Such as waiting for these clothes to arrive, to wrap around your own body. And, maybe, between your cheeks.