Haider Ackermann presented his first collection for Tom Ford on the evening of Wednesday 5 March 2025, during Paris Fashion Week. The Fall-Winter 2025-26 show, for men and women, was staged at the Pavillon Vendôme, a mid-sized space in central Paris fitted with gray mirrored walls, banquette seating and three runways.
The show was the first full statement from the designer named creative director in September 2024, after Peter Hawkings left the label in July of that year. Tom Ford himself arrived at the last minute, in darkness, and sat between Jared Leto and Anna Wintour, according to FashionNetwork.com, which noted that Ford had not attended Hawkings' show 18 months earlier. The soundtrack was a moody score that included Jóhann Jóhannsson's Good Night, Day.
The tailoring
Leather carried much of the collection: hard-pressed perfecto jackets for women, fitted biker jackets for men, redingotes worn with matching leather tops, and surgeon's coats. Double-face dressing gowns and draped evening pieces followed.
Suiting came in the form of wool banker's suits. The strongest tailored piece, in FashionNetwork.com's review, was a double-breasted jacket in mohair, held closed with a safety pin and finished with a white silk rose. The reviewer, Godfrey Deeny, judged the evening wear too close to Tom Ford's own codes but called the show a hit overall.
“I knew how I was going to stage the show the first day I started this job”
Haider Ackermann, speaking to FashionNetwork.com
The business behind the show
Tom Ford has been owned since 2023 by the Estée Lauder Companies, which keeps the much larger beauty and fragrance business. The fashion and accessories business is run under license by the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which reportedly paid about $150 million for a 20-year license. Zegna had already produced Tom Ford menswear under license since 2006.
Ackermann leads every Tom Ford fashion category, from menswear and womenswear to accessories and eyewear, and reports both to Tom Ford's president and chief executive, Guillaume Jesel, and to Lelio Gavazza, chief executive of Tom Ford Fashion at Zegna.
For men who buy Tom Ford tailoring, the debut pointed to suits built on classic business shapes, such as the banker's suit, alongside more dramatic jackets in mohair and leather. Mohair suiting has a crisp hand and a slight sheen, which suited the evening-leaning direction of the collection. The double-breasted mohair jacket, fastened with a pin rather than buttons, was a styling device for the runway rather than a construction change.
The collection also gave the Zegna Group its first look at the label under the designer it chose to relaunch it. Ackermann, a graduate of the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, ran his own label from 2003 to 2020 and was creative director of Berluti from 2016 to 2018. In May 2024 he was also named the first creative director of Canada Goose, a role he holds alongside Tom Ford.
The collection also gave the Zegna Group its first look at how the label performs under a designer it chose to relaunch it. Ackermann, who was creative director of Berluti from 2016 to 2018 and ran his own label from 2003 to 2020, now holds one of the most closely watched tailoring jobs in Paris.
