How do you exchange Tom Ford? Peter Hawkings, the newly appointed artistic director on the label, which Ford and his accomplice Domenico de Sole bought to the Estée Lauder Corporations in April of this 12 months, is best positioned than simply about anyone for the job. He labored alongside Ford for 25 years, since again within the Gucci days. Ford’s codes, “of glamour, sexiness, class, and wonder,” as Hawkings put it to my colleague Mark Holgate, are his personal codes.
This isn’t a brand new designer/new path debut, the type we’re prone to get at Gucci tomorrow, the place Sabato De Sarno has changed Alessandro Michele, one other Ford-era Gucci veteran. Consistency is the thought, and consolidation too. As Hawkings revealed in that interview, previous to his departure Ford was dealing with womenswear from Los Angeles, and Hawkings was doing menswear from London, and oftentimes there was a disconnect between the 2. “It’s so necessary, bringing that girl nearer to the person,” he stated tonight, “in order that they’re one universe.”
The men and women on the runway tonight did certainly really feel nearer collectively. They shared supplies together with shiny mock croc, a colour palette, and a bent to put on their shirts unbuttoned previous the navel, although the short-shorts have been girls-only. The gathering was a bit like a best hits playlist, beginning with the sculpted belt buckle from Ford’s iconic spring 1996 present for Gucci, solely this slinky lengthy gown was black, not white, and as a substitute of a hip cut-out, it had an uncovered again (a recurring motif).
Hawkings’s different speaking level backstage tonight was high quality. (The Ermenegildo Zegna Group operates the license.) “It’s completely the whole lot to me,” he stated, “We’ve been engaged on altering producers, ensuring footwear are fantastically made and comfy, and bringing the tailoring as much as the identical stage as the boys’s.” On the ladies’s aspect, the velvet pant fits modeled after one other iconic Gucci assortment by Ford have been notably convincing; it’s the class that Hawkings is aware of greatest.
The one factor lacking at this Tom Ford present was Tom Ford himself. He’d been scheduled to attend, however couldn’t make it out of London, apparently because of unhealthy climate. Hawkings had heard from him earlier within the day. “Tom’s been an absolute wonderful help to me right here,” he stated. “He informed me, ‘your consideration to element is incredible, and I’m positive it’s gonna be tremendous glamorous.’” On each counts, Ford was proper.
Hawkings’s subsequent step can be evolving his language and searching forward. In 2010, Ford had simply made A Single Man and was speaking concerning the distinction between his two mediums. Movie is “with no sign of ending,” however “a part of vogue is newness,” he stated. “It’s bought to be a brand new mixture of parts that’s shocking-stunning-beautiful all on the similar time.” He was proper about that too.
