Haider Ackermann (Q4211)
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Haider Ackermann is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Haider Ackermann |
Haider Ackermann is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Fashion’s finest bromance by far burns between Timothée Chalamet and Haider Ackermann. At Ackermann’s show this morning, Chalamet rolled up with a refreshing lack of pomp and circumstance. With his Prada Re-Nylon backpack slung over a plain white T-shirt worn above tapered paneled jeans, he resembled a well-put-together French exchange student. He clapped like crazy at the finale, then threw the “I Love You” hand gesture when posing with Ackermann backstage after it. Aww. Chalamet was as chill as his effect on the audience was electrifying: Ladies, you’re objectifying! Either get a room or get a restraining order!Chalamet-generated vapors apart, what this show delivered was Haider Ackermann at arguably his highest creative watermark so far. Although there was no real explanation forthcoming afterward (“I don’t like to define,” said the designer), the keys to unlocking the thought behind the collection appeared to reside in the track list upon the cotton quilt coat in Look 25. Under Ackermann’s signature and the headline “Private Dancer” (but above his name written in Japanese) was a list of songs, including Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” David Bowie’s “Absolute Beginners,” Yoko Ono’s “I Want My Love to Rest Tonight,” Underworld’s “Born Slippy,” Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” and a Bonnie Prince Billy song that was unreadable thanks to the fold of the coat. “These are all my favorite songs,” said Ackermann. “It was just an ode to everything I love.”The collection was also a mix that unfolded in groups of looks for both women (sometimes under space-age beehive hats) and men. A blank-slate white group bled into tailored day fabrics (camel, olive), before a velvet quilted aside led an extended monochrome section whose cutout, mixed-up collar shapes seemed to hint at the orchestrally formal. These angled duets of black and white fractured at the last into a triangular check. “You just put people together and let them get on the catwalk,” said Ackermann.What united this diverse group was the Ackermann eye for the romantic, the vagabond, and the sensual. At the back of jackets, vents bled into extra folds of material that caressed the silhouette. Long and lean overcoats were contoured with collars and buttons in a series of masterfully produced arrangements. Pants for women and men, tended with rare exception to the skinny, were often backed in leather, sometimes with grosgrain side stripes too, and consistently unisex-y.
In what was a first for this observer, Ackermann included corduroy within his menswear and matched his closing triangle-check foreshortened frock coat with a pair of velvet track pants. The front of one white T-shirt readLook at me: Shirting and tailoring were emblazoned with block-cap quotes from Dorothy Parker that included “But I shall stay the way I am because I do not give a damn” and “And if you do not love me so, to hell, my love, with you.”This show was a painstakingly tailored mixtape of all of Ackermann’s wearable passions that was both a love letter to his fans and an explicit, beautifully cut cold shoulder to any tasteless agnostics. On the way out, a grande dame of letters who had not been at all shaken by Chalamet exclaimed of Ackermann with unprompted passion: “They should just give him Armani.”
29 February 2020
Six looks into today’s Haider Ackermann show a model emerged in an ensemble first worn by Timothée Chalamet at the Venice Film Festival: a dove gray lapel-less suit in technical nylon with a flash of aqua blue at the hem. Later the actor wore a belted tuxedo in the same pale shade with a liquid silk top underneath. The outfits made headlines; Chalamet is among a new breed of rising male stars unafraid of red carpet experimenting, and in the case of that silvery tuxedo, real gender bendy stuff. Harry Styles and Ezra Miller are also in the club; together they’ve made watching the guys at award shows and premieres arguably more exciting than watching the girls. All this to say, it’s a good time to be Haider Ackermann, who was specializing in sensual androgyny long before he combined his men’s and women’s presentations last year.Picking up on Chalamet’s much-talked about tuxedo, the waist was a big focus of this collection. Men and women both got midriff-spanning leather belts, and other times Ackermann knotted a jacket at the hips with a casual flourish, the way he used to do in his early days. It looked especially compelling in the case of a jacket lined in vintage kimono silk. But if anything, this was a less androgynous collection than usual, due to the work the designer did with plissé bands of color, wrapping and twisting them around female torsos in a style reminiscent of Madame Grès. Eighty or so years after Grès’s heyday, Ackermann leaves much more skin exposed. The tops—if you can call them that, they’re really more like ribbons of fabric—will be strictly for the daring. Same for the jumpsuits with the bumster-low cut-out detail in back. Bella Hadid and Adut Akech’s plissé bandeau dresses, though? Those are unquestionably red carpet bound.
28 September 2019
“They’re handsome people—handsome girls and handsome boys,” Haider Ackermann said after his show today. Fall marks the designer’s second season combining women’s and men’s on one runway, but he wanted to clarify something about the new collection: “It’s not unisex; it’s about borrowing.” In other words, the patterns are gender specific, but he’s using the same materials for women and men, which gives the clothes their sense of fluidity and interchangeability—and the Ackermann aesthetic its sense of romance.This was a show in red, white, and black, with only one or two hints of camel and gray. The prints and jacquards (including one spotted on Timothée Chalamet earlier this month at the BAFTAs) were lifted from the patterns of butterfly wings, but the references remained abstract and graphic. Ackermann had Jane and Serge singing “Je T’aime . . . Moi Non Plus” as backup—steamy stuff. But the raffish quality that long defined his work for both genders has been more or less peeled away. What remains is a certain seriousness and rigor—a holdover, maybe, from the 18-month master class in the sartorial arts that was his gig at Berluti.There was certainly tailoring here at which to marvel. The fitted jackets with the sculptural draped lapels worn by women in chevron stripes, butterfly jacquard, and solid white were impressively elegant. The slouch of robe coats—in white and camel for the ladies, and a vivid shade of red for the gentlemen—was appealing, as well. The image that lingers, though, is the black men’s coat lightly dusted with sequins. We forget, after weeks in the fashion trenches, how something as small as a sequin can destabilize (tired, old) gender conventions. Hopefully one of Ackermann’s handsome boys will take him up on it.
2 March 2019
“It’s a love affair, and I’m your man,” said Haider Ackermann after his first double-gender show. “You love the thing about him and her, and how they might intertwine. It’s just a borrowing.”Helped along by Leonard Cohen, whose music has soundtracked his most moving collections, Ackermann delivered another one this morning—a meditative ode to the versatility of his creative tailoring. Ackermann made his point about the cross-gender viability of his clothes by sending out his models in pairs or threes. His girls and guys wore houndstooth trousers indistinguishable from each other. In a section of oxblood tailoring, it was the man who sported a chiffon robe under his vest; his female counterpart’s jacket was buttoned up and double-belted. Both sexes wore boxy cotton shirts with intricate laser cutting on the short sleeves, with the only difference between the two tops being the collars. And both modeled vibrant color, most notably an intoxicating chartreuse.The unisex concept has been touted elsewhere in Paris this week—Maison Margiela, Celine. It’s an idea whose time has come, but Ackermann handled it with a subtle, convincing grace that eluded the other designers.As usual, the seduction of this collection was its attitude: languid but charged. You can picture his longtime client Tilda Swinton devastating on the red carpet in the silk pajama top with the starburst jacquard robe spilling off her shoulder. Or his new client Timothée Chalamet in the double-breasted jacket with the intricate laser-cutting work tracing the lapels and the sexy, nipped-waist fit (those Berluti days paying off). With Swinton statuesque and glow-y in the front row, the one thing missing from this men’s and women’s show was a sighting of theCall Me by Your Namestar.
29 September 2018
Ducking backstage postshow at Haider Ackermann, we caught the last moment of a group cheer; the designer was surrounded by models who wore spiky shag wigs and a rainbow of bright colors. After pecking a few of them on the cheek, Ackermann turned to a clutch of us attentive reporters. “We’re going through strange times; I wanted to have this fragility, but [also] something very uplifting,” he explained. Hence those electric hues: absinthe green for almost-sporty outerwear, spicy orange for silk suits, and sky blue on the tights and satin lace-up stiletto booties that punctuated most of the looks.Considering this was a collection consisting predominantly of tailoring, he conveyed the fragility more abstractly via, say, the delicate white embroidery on an orange jacquard suit, the soft frills of ruffles trimming jackets that were tied peplum-like around the models’ waists, or the pink velvet lining of a black vinyl coat. The collar and bodice of a chartreuse-color shirtdress were decorated with more of those tiny ruffles; otherwise, his dresses were as clingy and sleek as a dancer’s leotard.There were not many new ideas from Ackermann this season, but, as he said: “strange times.” His fans will find comfort in the recognizability of the attenuated silhouettes and the subtle flourishes. There’s assurance in stability; still, one wonders: What would a leap of faith look like for Ackermann these days?
3 March 2018
According to Haider Ackermann, he doesn’t overthink—or even much consciously contemplate—the direction of his collections. They just happen. One concession, however, was that he wanted to create clothes that felt “inhabited” this time around. Certainly, these were clothes with personality: languidly and romantically Haider-ish, of course, with many hinted at but mostly hidden depths.The prettily faded floral-patterned underside of a popped revere on a soft but tailored drill jacket and the liner below it disguised what looked like a khaki shirt and pant pairing below; in fact, this was a boilersuit whose top and bottom were connected only at the back. A flower-strewn black silk robe was worn above a long, sleeveless liner which itself was lined with a zigzag golden yellow silk quilting. Along with a made in Italy but Japanese-looking blossom floral, that quilting was a touchstone of the collection. There were two superb bombers, one black, the other a faded yellowy green in palm brocade velvet; these were key pieces in a high-and-fitted silhouette against which Ackermann countered his robe-topped looser looks.Interspersed amongst the menswear were pieces from women’s Pre-Fall that ran from an artfully battered military look in what looked like light boiled wool to a sharply handsome floral-patterned monochrome suit. Etched into one of the men’s belts were the words: “Hold on to me.” There was a lot here to hold on to, happily.
17 January 2018
Haider Ackermann belongs to an elite and shrinking class of women’s tailors. It’s a métier that has lost its luster with the young generation of designers who rely on streetwear and fan merch to burnish their images. Ackermann came by his own interest in the tailoring craft early, but his appointment at Berluti, LVMH’s sole menswear brand, has sharpened his skills.A decade ago, when fashion began paying attention to Ackermann, his women’s tailoring was marked by wrapping and draping, and his shows came by their cool via styling: sleeves pushed up past the elbows, lots of romance at the neck and waist. Here, the interest was baked into his patternmaking, which is much harder to do. Take Mica Argañaraz’s white jacket, for example, with the revers in ruby red silk. Ackermann cut it asymmetrically left to right and left it lapel-less, exposing a slice of skin from collarbone to the tab closure at the waist. For the grown-up woman who doesn’t want to wear gowns to fancy occasions, an elegant piece like that holds a lot of allure. Another jacket was bisected horizontally with a cut-out at the midriff, and a third was scooped out in the back up to the shoulder blades, with an internal belt holding everything in place. “It’s linear and graphic,” Ackermann said of the collection, “but then you have this sensuality to make it less razor-cut, because life is like a razor cut.”Undoubtedly. And so he added softness elsewhere with bare little knit sweaters that twisted and stretched around the torso, and for the customer less comfortable flashing her latissimus dorsi, blouson tops tucked into high-waisted trousers. The entire collection was whittled down to just a few shades: red, black, white, light yellow, and sky blue. The gold-dot jacquard he used on a tuxedo and a pair of skinny pants was an attractive outlier. If you looked closely, it appeared to be cracked like wallpaper. It was a technique of the weave, and it turned these particular Ackermann pieces into collectible treasures.
30 September 2017
This show began to a slow and steady thump from the PA that sounded like a livestream from a stethoscope on an elephant. As the models walked through twin lines of bulbs toward the photographers, then turned left or right around the grand ballroom of the InterContinental, the structure of this show seemed just as measured. The mostly black, mostly striped looks turned left. The mostly white, mostly dotted looks turned right. Within those stripes and dots—often slightly mismatched between Ackermann’s signature low-rise tapered pants and his raffishly loose smocks, vests, or sinuously cut jackets—were signs of stress head: panels of print that appeared to have been peeled off the garment, revealing different concentrations of dot or stripe below.As the thumps slowly sped up remorselessly, that initial semblance of a structure fell delicately apart. Sweaters were worn around the neck rather than on the body; a pair of rust-color jersey track pants tapered to gaiter tightness injected the first shiver of color; then a wide regatta stripe suit in mint linen pushed it further. A long loose silk trench billowed behind a nattily wide pair of pants in monochrome check. Around 15 looks in, a fabulous, revere-less single button lilac suit represented total defeat of the relative restraint that had preceded it.Still the thumps grew faster. We saw a few women’s looks, notably a black and white shorts suit with short, turned-up arms revealing a polka-dot cuff: Ackermann cuts so incredibly for women. The thumps merged and turned into a stressful dirge as the two opposing currents of men and women circled in an increasingly diverse and deconstructed representation of Ackermann’s cultured/nomad/pirate archetype, all shod in ribboned gladiator flip-flops.Afterward Ackermann said, “It was little bad boys in search of themselves. The bad boys are getting mature and they’re trying to straighten up.” This is a designer whose designs are a mirror of himself. Was he referring to his big boy gig at Berluti? Maybe—but let’s hope Haider stays twisted. It’s why the audience roared over the wall of sound when he came out to take his bow.
21 June 2017
Pictures of Nicki Minaj with one pneumatic breast exposed in the front row at Haider Ackermann this morning will have whizzed around the world a million times by now. That lady really knows how to make an entrance! Minaj was wearing her own clothes, not loaners from Ackermann, but there was a moment earlier in his career when this designer specialized in a kindred sort of deshabille: wispy bits of silk hanging on for dear life from the shoulders or the hips. While he moved on from all of that years ago, his Fall collection displayed a new kind of rigor that looked like it could’ve been influenced by his menswear gig at Berluti. His January debut at the LVMH-owned brand was very well-received, and this was a convincing collection, too. For women inclined toward roguish pantsuits, Ackermann will be their man come Fall.Back in his early days, Ackermann draped and twisted and tucked his tailoring. Today’s was constructed with cleaner, more straightforward lines in an uncluttered palette of mostly black and white. Artfulness entered the picture at the slightly built-up shoulders or via the gold filament that was one of the show’s only decorative elements: meandering down the front of a narrow, peplumed skirtsuit or circling the waistband of boyish, tapered, and cropped pants. He had two ideas for evening. The first was covered up and cozy, and combined chunky ribbed knits with a Mongolian lamb skirt or culottes; the other, a halter top with a scrolled neck and a peephole worn with leather leggings and a swaggering parka, was a look Minaj could probably get with. Coming on the heels of an Ackermann collection that featured slogan tees and acid brights, this one had a seriousness of intent that was compelling.
4 March 2017
Haider Ackermann was up to his old tricks tonight. The cheeky devil held a fashion show mostly in the dark. You could see the loose tartan jackets flowing over the tight leather pants, the floaty checked jackets (on women) over second-skin leggings, and the deep-V velveteen brocade dresses over nothing but a serious attitude. You had to stare to see these clothes, and when you stared what you got was the contours of some harlequin leggings bulging forth, or a suit, or a mixed-material jacket dissected by a strafing of white thread and yarn. Slightly shockingly, Ackermann also did two read-it-and-weep perfect double-breasted banker suits.Usher was there and we were, too, and it was a beautiful show—despite being held in the dark. Ackermann’s Berluti gig kicks off on Friday, which perhaps lent this an air of a retrospective. But everyone in the audience who howled for Haider from day one howled again here, in delight that he has found a place for himself near the peak of the LVMH escarpment.
18 January 2017
The atmosphere atHaider Ackermann’s show was a little more charged than normal this morning. Chalk that up to the combined presence of both Tilda Swinton and Kristin Scott Thomas or to the fact that Ackermann wasrecently namedthe new creative director of Berluti—the LVMH-owned menswear label. He makes his debut there in January of next year. How might his suddenly much-busier schedule affect his own line?Backstage he gave a succinct précis: “order and chaos.” Ackermann is known for his draping and wrapping, but he’s been moving away from those signatures for seasons. Spring marks a complete break. Save for a couple of coats spilling off of the shoulder, the tailoring was quite exacting. His high-waisted, closely-fitted pants require two kinds of rigor: on the part of the designer and on the razor thin woman who will wear them. Jackets were cut with horizontal slices removed from the midriff, and, on at least one occasion, with the back scooped out. The blood-spatter jacquard used for the tailoring—not grisly like it sounds—was the chaos part of his equation.Ackermann’s news came in the form of Miyake-style pleats. They’re one of the season’s most obvious trends; he made them his own with a ravishing shade of metallic chartreuse, seen on a long, loose-fit plissé tank dress and pant suit. “Paradise birds on acid,” was his poetic—not to mention spot-on—description of a color palette that also included electric yellow, bright orange, pink, lavender, gold, and copper. He’s always had a gorgeous way with color. Slogan T-shirts that read “Be Your Own Hero” and “Silent Soldier” were more unexpected. Though he’s not the only designer to put them on the runway this week (see yesterday’s Dior show), they were the outliers in a collection that was entirely persuasive without them.
1 October 2016
A screech of feedback and the strafing of spotlights pushed by technicians hidden behind eaves above the glorious courtyard in front of us signaled the start of this tight, bright, stay-up-all nightHaider Ackermanncollection. We were alfresco, and a light pattering of fat, slow, humidity-swollen raindrops had faded just a few moments earlier. “I would have loved it if they walked in the rain,” said the designer afterwards: “It would have been beautiful.” And semi-appropriate too, because the irregular white on yellow, red, black, or pink print silk shirts in this collection were a creative reinterpretation of sweat-drenchedness achieved post a dusk ’til dawn session of sybaritic dancing. Ackermann explained: “I have this gang of young kids around me. And they are full-on. And I wanted to capture their energy. They are just kids who want to dance and party and be happy. They don’t have the heaviness of the world.”The women’s looks in this show played loose, dark, and sometimes severe counterbalance to the often fitted but always frolicsome saturated abundance of the men’s. Those silks, painted or metallic-treated leathers, plus shrapnel-burst intarsias on bombers and jackets were for peacocks of the night. Ackermann is known as a master of the crumpled-crotch tight pant but his high-hemmed carrot silhouette was see-in-the-dark stand-out too. To like Haider Ackermann you have to like Haider Ackermann, but this was particularly likeable Haider Ackermann.
22 June 2016
The November attacks were just three months ago, but there’s been not much talk about them in Paris this week. Maybe it’s the pressure to produce new material or to look upbeat in the face of a tough situation. To soldier on. There was a little bit of that idea inHaider Ackermann’s army jackets today. But more so, he was after ways to create joy. “It’s a tough world outside and I want to have this gracefulness, this brightness, happiness,” he said afterwards. “To show the other side of what we are confronted with every day.” To get the job done, Ackermann turned to velvet and sparkle and in the process landed on two of the season’s running themes.The collection felt like an evolution of Ackermann’s Spring show, if not as strong as that outing. Where last season he used electric pastels, here the colors were more autumnal: red, copper, a deep bottle green. There was a velvet evening column, the hem of which scooped up to the hip above the left thigh. Ciara, who sat front row, could rock one on the red carpet. But like Ackermann said backstage, it’s the everyday that he’s concerned with, so more often the designer played down velvet’s preciousness. Key pieces included a quilted bed jacket in dusty rose, a fluid unstructured trench in that emerald green, and crinkly red velvet pants with the hip-hugging shape of jeans. Pants were low slung and different colors front and back (a little tricky) or crept north towards the rib cage. Ackermann showed one elegant high-waisted pair with an army green wool camisole and a matching jacket slipping off one shoulder. Sparkle entered the picture via dandy tomboy tailoring in tweeds and jacquards embroidered with sequins or shot through with Lurex.If and when color and sparkle fail, there’s always Bhutan. Ackermann is headed there for his holiday.
5 March 2016
“It was all about clash, just the same old story,” saidHaider Ackermann, and in a way he was right on both counts. Yes, there was an ongoing friction in his decorative dialectic; rich sombre(ish) olive and blue panne velvet Acker-jackets contrasting with brazen-hussy woolens comprehensively inseminated with come-hither spangly crystal. Silk jacquard Acker-suits in a drunken check were mismatched into different looks against different counterpoint pieces.The same old story was also evident in the richness in fabrication, the angular agonized rocker archetype, and a sense of mordant lushness. We’ve seen those chisel toes, that hi-there hosiery (a happy thing after sockless Milan), and that attenuated silhouette before, too.It might have been the tragic, not-tonight-dear flaccid mohawk forelocks or the competing richness of the incredible Hôtel de Ville salon we were luxuriating in, but this seemed a darker chapter of Acker-ism than usual—especially compared with the sunlit swashbuckle of his last men’s collection. The women’s looks, too, were wanner and harder.Subtle variation of the familiar—aka the same old story—is a nobly counterintuitive road to tread in fashion’s endless turning circle. The Acker-type archetype is a prime example of it. This season’s version, though, was intriguingly withdrawn.
20 January 2016
The timing couldn’t have been better. Just as the models streamed out together forHaider Ackermann’s finale, the clouds broke outside the Palais de Chaillot and sunshine poured in through the giant Eiffel Tower–facing windows, lighting up a parade of gorgeous pastel panne velvet. Ackermann has a reputation as Paris’s broodiest artiste, known for a dark, moody palette and a penchant for draping that sometimes errs on the droopy side. He was up to something a bit different today, and it started with his dreamily hued velvet—in lemon yellow, blush pink, pale blue, and lilac—with punk-but-pretty mohawks to match. We’ve seen color play a starring role at other shows this week, notablyDries Van NotenandLanvin, but here it was an authentic surprise. It’s likely nobody walked in wanting a pair of green chartreuse satin pants with a dusty pink and faded blue waistband, but some of us walked out that way.The other virtue of this collection was its diversity. Jacket-wise, Ackermann put a lot of options on the runway, from shrunken leather motos to languid men’s dressing gowns to a double-breasted blazer trim enough to tuck into trousers. Pant styles, meanwhile, ranged from Friday night at the club (black leathers) to Sunday morning at Les Puces (frayed and patched cargos). Only laser-cut leggings stood out as a mistake in a lineup that was otherwise pretty free of them. The lacy pantyhose peeking out from under waistbands was a styling effect, strictly runway only. Dresses weren’t the focus, but the ones he did show scored high on the wearability meter, especially a bias-cut black velvet number worn with a matching jacket.
3 October 2015
Thank you, Haider: Throwing a show in which the audience can see your clothes, look by look and in full evening sunshine, is a transformative improvement on the terrible old presentation format. Now let's move on. The uncharitable could argue—and indeed do—that this designer's oeuvre is a one-trick deal. But what a trick it is. Snortingly masculine of shoulder, Hedi-enragingly etiolated of leg, Astaire-ishly trim of waist, Cuban of heel, and damned sexy altogether: You could almost hear the estrogen (and, actually, plenty of testosterone too) flooding the balcony as Scott Barnhill clenched his way past us in gold Lurex Chelsea boots, monochrome pinstripe jeans, a complicatedly tiered cummerbund, and a multi-collared, sleeves-pulled-up, gold-on-black kimono top.All his energetically stylized detail can be exhausting to process—imagine leopard-print slippers under zebra socks under pinstripe pants below a Breton shirt under a chalk-stripe jacket, and try and keepyourhead together—but this designer has total harmonic control of his ingredients. "It was my ideal road trip," Ackermann said backstage: "I always wanted to be a dancer. I want to go back to Japan, to travel through Persia … these are all my fantasies of escape." Judging by the whooping at his finale, it's a fantasy shared. A cracker of an Ackermann.
24 June 2015
Beyond his consistent way with a snug jacket—sleeves pushed up past the elbows, a flourish at the neck and waist—another thing that has defined Haider Ackermann's work is his mastery of color. He tends not to emphasize print on the runway, but it came to the fore today, and it invigorated a Fall collection that was otherwise quite dark. Leopard spots decorated a tie-neck blouse; graphic black and white checks appeared on slim tapering pants; a polka-dot scarf was tied at the neck of an understated maxi coat.Topping it all off were fitted jackets and coats in glinting metallic tweed bouclé, the tweed simultaneously lending the collection a boyish and more sumptuous vibe. Among the best tweed pieces was a gold-toned jacket cut away at the sides, worn over a Lurex-shot blouse and black tapered trousers. It had an everyday approachability that, with his louche style, Ackermann has sometimes neglected.That's not to say that this most romantic of designers has gone banal on us. To the contrary, a lot of the pieces were crosshatched with heavy white stitching, as if they'd been in the family for years and had quite suddenly required some at-home mending. Ackermann is that rare breed of designer who is utterly unhitched from current trends. The asymmetrically slung, pleated kilts he showed today will play well amidst Fall's miniskirt boomlet, but that seems a mere coincidence. The outfit that showcased his real talents was a red velvet pantsuit brushed with gold leaf. For one thing, there was its sensational color; for another, it looked virtually timeless.For Tim Blanks' take on Haider Ackermann, watch this video.
7 March 2015
If you think these pictures are gloomily lit, they have nothing on Haider Ackermann's presentation itself. Attendees stood 10-deep in front of a minimally illuminated line of Ackermann-clad models, who shuffled about for a couple of minutes or so before going into an equally inky room next door—to thunderous applause—where they lingered to drink at a bar and be examined by those who followed. Ackermann said the idea was to be able to "smell the clothes." By this, he meant that this was an evocation of their essence, rather than a chance for a forensic going-over. To my mind, it made for a counterproductively indulgent presentation, but to be fair there was a certain logic in choosing a dark and elusive backdrop for a collection rich in fabric, color, and Ackermann's truly virtuoso facility for extravagant ruche and extraneously decorative twist. Decadent and dandyish, these are don't-give-a-damn clothes for men who really, really do.
21 January 2015
Haider Ackermann was due for a comeback. In recent seasons, his languid draping and extravagant layers had started to feel tired. Oh, he had his true believers, but otherwise you could sense the audience's interest flagging. If it didn't quite snap back to attention this morning in the airless Couvent des Cordeliers, blame the lack of air-conditioning. Still, there was something happening with the clothes; the collection clicked. Ackermann's work has always been heavy on the atmospherics; this season, the poetry of the past remained, but less of the pretensions. His choice of materials mattered. A few of his signature shrunken jackets—arms pushed up past the elbows, hem cut high in the back, with ruffles and ruching in the front—were made from sweatshirt material. The fatigue-green version looked like it had gone through the wash; it was a standout. On other looks, he used fine-gauge knits. There was nothing so plain as a simple pullover sweater. Languid mousseline sleeves extended from the cuffs of one slouchy jumper, and a boatneck dipped into a suggestive, deepVin back. But even when he tied a silk coat around the waist of that outfit's tuxedo-stripe pants to create a long train, the relaxed attitude remained.If there was less pretension, there was also more precision. An off-the-shoulder jacket had a distinctive sharpness. Same goes for the lavender le smoking. Walk into a party wearing it, and every cocktail dress in the room will seem hopelessly out-of-date.His subtle color sense deserves mention here, as well. The chartreuse chiffon of a halter-neck top and lilac satin pants almost vibrated. And who knew there were so many ethereal variations on dusty rose and oyster gray? Ackermann's look is so specific, he'll always run the risk of repeating himself. This wasn't a reinvention, per se. But the designer does look reinvigorated.
27 September 2014
The version of "Blowin' in the Wind" that tracked Haider Ackermann's show was by Bob Dylan himself, sounding unrecognizably deeper, calmer, and so much more tuneful than usual. If that was the voice of experience, it didn't exactly chime with the evolution of Ackermann's collection for men. Three shows in, he's gone from bohemia to bourgeois to…? Well, decadent edginess was on today's agenda. "The feeling we're missing," he called it. The man who had inspired him was none other than rock's erstwhile prince of darkness, Keith Richards. A few weeks back, the designer went to his first Stones concert. "They're not my generation, but their energy was beyond fantastic," he said. "Keith took my scarf and wrapped it around his waist. There was just a natural decadence."Some would say an equally natural appetite for the outré informs Ackermann's own work. His brocades; velvets; long, flowing layers; and exaggerated proportions speak of dandified languor. The silky embroidered robe over striped pants sported by model Scott Barnhill in this latest presentation summed up the look perfectly. But the new edge sharpened the silhouette a little. Op art checks, black vinyl pants, and a gold velvet baseball jacket were, if not exactly rock 'n' roll, at least a little more kick-ass than usual. "The freedom that people like Keith Richards, Iggy Pop, and Robert Mapplethorpe had gave me energy," Ackermann explained. "They took risks we're not capable of taking." He's clearly fascinated by such a thought. His models were posed like exotic specimens in a zoo, shuffling a little awkwardly under the gaze of the invited audience. But even if Ackermann's inspirations represent a kind of wish fulfillment for him, they don't infuse his work with enough passion to be truly persuasive. The wind that was blowin' today was not the wind of vital change.
24 June 2014
Elisa Sednaoui walked into the Palais de Chaillot this morning wearing a coat from Haider Ackermann's recent men's collection. With Ackermann, there has always been a symbiosis between masculine and feminine, but if he was touting his dandyism at his men's show in January, this women's collection was pulled way, way back. Here, he seemed to be reconsidering his signature sumptuousness; the jewel-tone colors and metallic sheen of silks along with the sheer tulles of last season were replaced by a palette of grays, taupes, and browns, and substantial menswear woolens like an oversize pied-de-poule. More evidence of Ackermann's new mind-set could be found in the ribbed knit of a slouchy sweater and matching pants, as well as the washed cotton sweatshirt material he used for zip-front jackets. Not that he's completely abandoned his more decadent instincts: Those hoodies were lined generously with fox fur. His "jeans," meanwhile, combined gunmetal python skin and olive green wool.The restrained mood was cued by a soundtrack of Schubert's Piano Trio in E Flat fromThe Hunger.There's something quite haunting about that music, but it's stately, too, and that's a good way to think about Ackermann's new eveningwear. In the past, his gowns have often been more dishabille, the advisability of which was in serious question. Today there was a fairly chaste flash of skin on a long dress that married a tailored jacket above the waist to a bias-cut silk skirt. It was provocative, but retained its elegance. Ackermann did some hard thinking about his clothes this season; this was a canny evolution.
28 February 2014
Haider Ackermann's pirouette onto fashion's center stage with his epochal Fall 2011 collection launched a thousand comparisons with Romeo Gigli, another poetic dreamer who, two decades ago, made Paris weep with wonder. Gigli's cautionary career proved that a signature so particular can be both blessing and curse. That's the niggling in the back of one's mind when approaching a new Ackermann show. His men's collection is in its infancy, but it's a testament to the distinctiveness of his first presentation last Spring that the same apprehension already applies.Faced by Ackermann's signatures—the opulent fabrics and languid proportions, the flowing scarves and lustrous waistcoats— most people would agree that the Haider man is a dandy. But for Ackermann, dandyism is a state of mind, rather than a dress code. "More distant, more reclusive," he offered by way of definition tonight. And there were moremoreswhen he talked about his new collection: "More mature, more interior, more sober." Herringbone and gray flannel were the new standards, leaving the jacket in lilac velvet like a last gasp of past splendors. Except that Ackermann had really just made the richness more discreet. The silhouettes were still extreme, the proportions extravagant, the layering louche. Tear it all apart and you could walk away with a smart camel blouson or fur-lined parka, a striped cardigan coat or that icon of sobriety, a gray flannel topcoat.One of Ackermann's young models came to say good-bye after the show, returned from the designer's dreamworld to the everyday of jeans and skateboard. The transformation in ten minutes was so striking that it provoked an onlooker to ask Ackermann what kind of transport he imagined his men would prefer in their full Haider rig. "A Kawasaki to Scotland," he promptly answered. Lord Byron on a bike? Maybe Ackermann is making the right moves after all.
14 January 2014
"A handsome woman" was Haider Ackermann's précis backstage. It was an efficient summary of a new collection that stuck resolutely to the gender play that is a signature of his brand. Tailored jackets with a flourish at the lapels, and trousers with a lot of action at the waist—these are the Ackermann trademarks. But after the heavy woolen houndstooths and sculpted army fatigues of his last collection, he turned instead to the shimmering metallic fabrics we're seeing so much of elsewhere this week, amping up the color and shine. The multicolor crystals embroidered on a man's jacket were a nice bit of unexpectedness, and the dandy factor was similarly high on a boxy sapphire jacket and slouchy amethyst pants combo. Inserted in between the tailoring were long dresses in tulle and silk pleated Fortuny-style. When layered with other pieces, these served the cause of lightness well. But worn without a jacket, as they were a few times here, the dresses were more wanton than handsome; they'll pose problems of the see-through sort that Ackermann chose not to concern himself with. That's the kind of indulgence that eventually proves tiresome, even from a designer as talented as the one in question here. Which is why it was a minor thrill to see him try his hand at something genuinely new for him. Mixed in among his dandified layers was a pair of minimal black jumpsuits. Sleek and simple. Even better was a black off-the-shoulder dress that dipped into a precipitous V in back, its tight sleeves apparently suspending it in place. We'd like to see Ackermann push a lot further into new territory next season.
27 September 2013
"It's always the same story," said Haider Ackermann at his menswear presentation today. If, by that, he meant sumptuous duchesse satins tailored into jackets, shiny renaissance jacquards cut into trousers, and generous swathes of fringed silk slung around the whole masculine package, then he hit the nail on the head. If, on the other hand, he was talking about the psychological underpinnings of the collection, that was a whole other, ultimately more tantalizing story. So let's take Door Number Two.Ackermann has always claimed that the women's collections that have captured the imagination of the fashion world are like a grail quest for him. At the end of it all, he'll connect with an elusive muse who has always been just out of reach. With this collection for men—essentially his first, barring the one-off he showed at Pitti in Florence a few years ago—his goal is much closer to home. "I'm searching for myself," Ackermann admitted, "someone I'd like to be." Meanwhile, a dozen or so models indolently circled around, carefully chosen simulacra of the image the designer had conjured for himself. Most of them were significantly inked. "They catch a moment with their tattoos," said Ackermann. "I'd like to have been one of them." But he's never plucked up the nerve to do it. "Hiding behind something," he muttered.It was a curious admission, given that his clothes were so out in the open with their signature combination of extreme luxury and über slouch. Like the baggy trousers with gathered cuffs—tracksuit-easy but embroidered with green silk dragons—paired with a blazer piped pajama-like in ice blue. The ultimate gift with purchase for that outfit would be an opium pipe. Same with the kimono-detailed dinner jacket in lilac duchesse satin, its accompanying trousers sporting the crotch drop that is Ackermann's own sartorial signature. Which is, of course, the point. His collections—for women and, now, men—are splinters of himself. Although he insisted that working on men's clothing ended up being more concentrated than womenswear, more about detail, more about the garment itself ("You can't drape a man," he observed sagely), the fact remains that the poetry of his clothes is the poetry of the man himself.
25 June 2013
Strength and fragility are Haider Ackermann's lasting preoccupations, the subjects he returns to each season when you see him backstage. "It's a very thin line between them," he said today. Still, this controlled collection came down on the side of strength more so than some previous seasons have.Ackermann reduced his dress offerings to just one for Fall. From a designer famous for straps spilling off shoulders, twisting seams, and trailing hems, the smoky gray panne velvet column gown here was notable for its spare simplicity. Tailoring is where his interests lie at this moment. Some of it was awkwardly oversize, with full-legged pants pooling around the model's ankles, or droopy sleeves extending almost to the knees. Those pieces were moody and evocative as all get out—like a girl in her soldier lover's uniform, or, as the designer suggested afterward, like Marilyn Monroe emerging from the hospital all bundled up against the paparazzi. (Monroe was on the sound track.) But they were also a bit indulgent on Ackermann's part.When you see his clothes in the front rows—and we've seen plenty this week, not just on Tilda Swinton—it's the sharper pieces that his customers gravitate to, with strong shoulders and defined waists. Gratifyingly, there was more of that sort of thing on the runway in the form of a houndstooth military jacket with the collar torn off and the seams left raw, or another jacket in surplus brown with purple velvet lining its ruffled peplum.Fur is new territory for Ackermann, but he proved a dab hand. Women will surely put the power of their wallets behind his shearling flight jackets and his collarless beaver-fur coats. Those were the kind of indulgences that customers will find hard to resist.
1 March 2013
The three things that have earned Haider Ackermann his sudden fashion stardom are his gorgeous color sense; his lavish, layered silhouettes; and his evocative runway shows. The belted and peplumed layers returned again for Spring, and a spoken-word rendition of the Billie Holiday song "The Man I Love" (spoken by a man, by the way) played its pulse-quickening part to a T at this morning'sdéfilé.The colors, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen—at least on the runway. (Tilda Swinton wore deep purple in the front row.) In the place of his usual rich hues, Ackermann employed graphic, geometric prints and a stricter palette—mostly black, white, and navy."I wanted to move on," the designer said backstage. The first surprise were the polka dots, which decorated a sheer, short-in-front, long-in-back slipdress that he paired with pants in a smaller dot pattern—a popular evening silhouette for Spring '13 that he put his stamp on several seasons ago. On another look, he combined a vertically striped fitted jacket with a draped blouse and full trousers in two different mosaic-tile motifs.Collage has been a through-line this season, but where other designers patchworked individual pieces, Ackermann used whole outfits as his canvas. The effects were as reliably transporting as his famous color mixes. The models' stately pace threatened to put many in the crowd on edge, but it did have one advantage: There was plenty of time to pick favorites. Ours was a crisp white backless top tucked into high-waisted horizontally striped pants.
28 September 2012
Haider Ackermann is back in sinuous mode. Last season saw him exploring a boxier, more masculine silhouette. Today, with Frank Sinatra crooning about "Autumn Leaves" to back him up, he was more interested in organic shapes. "I try to be pure," he said backstage. "But I can't help myself, I love to wrap." The waisted silhouettes that were the results of all that draping were the best he's ever done—a spot-on mixture of the sublime and the salable, and he's got the most sophisticated color sense of anyone in Paris.He opened with a pair of looks that put a greater emphasis on salability than his reputation as a design iconoclast might suggest—the first was a trim, cropped jacket in sage green over a stretchy black turtleneck dress cinched with a blush gray molded leather belt, and the second was a silk blouse partially tucked into high-waisted, full-legged trousers. Leather coats and jackets with motorcycle detailing should likewise have the retailers calling.It wasn't long, though, before Ackermann's inner wrap artist came out. Jackets were exuberantly peplumed and bustled below those new molded leather belts, and dresses were draped from a single point below the breastbone. Double-layer skirts in which the top layer was shaped like a simple leaf and split up the middle were deeply sensuous without exposing a hint of flesh. They may be too heavy in leather, but they'll be a hit in other, less weighty materials.As for the colors, who else could pull off the pumpkin orange and marigold yellow mix of a tailored crombie and tapered pants? Or the cobalt blue of a cropped jacket worn over an oxbood vest, gunmetal scarf, and copper pants?You can add this to the short list of shows this season that brought the crowd to its feet.
2 March 2012
How do you follow up a triumph? Because that's what you'd call Haider Ackermann's Fall show, which moved a good many in its crowd to tears.For one thing, you book the tippy top of the modeling biz and they thank you for it. We witnessed Natasha Poly (ranked number two in the world on Models.com, for the record) doing just that backstage. "I think you're such a talented man," she said sincerely.For another, you use your considerable talents to reconsider proportion. Ackermann's models have long walked on towering heels; his twisty, trailing silhouettes have demanded it. But for Spring, he was thinking along "rockabilly Lord Byron" lines (he loves a romantic poet, doesn't he?), and he put his girls in flats—backless oxfords slippers, to be precise.They were a good fit for the new menswear elements in the collection—mismatched suits in bright silks and tie-print jacquards that showed off the designer's sublime sense of color, the jackets on the boxier side and the pants oversize and slouchy through the thighs. The layered, somewhat rumpled look sometimes included a washed leather vest under the jacket, other times a sheer shirt unbuttoned down to there, and in still other instances just a silk scarf, so that the back was exposed. Why so much menswear? "You love the idea that she would steal the clothes from her husband," he said, before correcting himself: "Her lover, not her husband."It wasn't all a case of closet raiding, but the feminine side of Ackermann's story was the weaker one. Some of the pieces gave ammunition to critics who question the wearability of his clothes. Those Byronic robes would've come in handy to cover up dresses that were completely see-through above the waist. Better were the jackets with cutouts at the sides or across the back that he paired with stretchy skirts that scraped the floor behind the models' flats, or the lamé pleated dress in which Natasha closed the show.This wasn't the blockbuster that last season was, but we'd still rate it a success for its cool new attitude.
30 September 2011
Haider Ackermann has been nurturing a growing fan base for several years now, but a little comment from Karl Lagerfeld that the Belgian-trained designer should be the man to replace him at Chanel one day, not to mention the fact that Ackermann has been named a potential Galliano replacement at Dior, means that positively everybody is paying attention now. He rewarded true believers and first-timers alike this morning with what might be the show of the season: beautiful, evocative, and transporting.Leonard Cohen deserves part of the credit for the transporting element. A recording of his love song "A Thousand Kisses Deep" played on the sound system as the models glided slowly down the runway. Hard to resist a line like "I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat." But to be sure, there was a lot of romance in these clothes.After last season's foray into bold color and louche eveningwear, at first it seemed as if Ackermann was opting for restraint, opening with a pair of black coats with satin revers and loose, trailing backs. But then ivory, a hue we can't recall ever seeing at an Ackermann show, entered the picture, followed by rose-tinted sequins, and after that, brilliant combinations of jewel colors. "Exuberant" is the word for the way he wrapped, twisted, draped, and tucked tailored coats and jackets made from leathers, suedes, and silks. All the hallmarks of the Ackermann look were here: the action at the neckline; the small, belted waist; the sleeves rolled and pushed up past the elbows; the long, lean leg. This time, though, "it's a more masculine attitude," the designer said backstage. "Last season, she was letting herself go. Now she wants to be more reserved."Maybe so, but a teal cutaway tuxedo jacket worn with a forest green silk top and full sapphire trousers that tapered to the ankle isn't the kind of look for going unnoticed in. And neither was the second-skin knit belted above an asymmetrical skirt—especially given that the latter revealed the better part of one leg, above which stirred a flounced leather peplum. This was a bravura performance from a singular designer.
4 March 2011
Janet Jackson was at Haider Ackermann's show this morning. It's a sure sign that his days as fashion insiders' favorite secret are over. But gone Hollywood he hasn't. The Colombian-born, Belgian-trained designer's vision is as unwavering as ever. It crystallized on his runway today, where the clothes somehow managed to be utterly soigné and fabulously louche at the same time.Elaborating on one of the ideas from his evocative show at the Palazzo Corsini in Florence during Pitti Uomo in June, Ackermann turned silk pajamas into languid eveningwear—the sash of a silk cami trailing behind the model as she wafted down the runway; a robe spilling off one bare shoulder. That feeling of dishabille extended to gowns in electric blue, red, emerald, yellow, or black, which plunged to the navel in front, or, more daringly, came with curving slits at the pelvis. Other options for evening married tuxedo lapels to a narrow skirt, leaving the entire back bare.Ackermann didn't neglect daywear, either. Leather vests and jackets blousoned over soft silk pants and a long pleated skirt. And his signature cropped jackets were finished off in back with heart-shaped bows that prompted little gasps of how-does-he-do-that delight from the front row. When the designer came out after the finale, the crowd erupted in ecstatic applause, and he deserved it.
1 October 2010
Haider Ackermann titled his show A Carte Blanche Named Opium, and the elegantly spare book (he called it a carnet de voyage) that was distributed before his Spring presentation in Florence promised an appropriately dark, sensual head trip. That was a lot for the clothes to live up to. They were beautiful, yes, but so exquisitely studied that the carte blanche, the drama, went missing. Still, the scenario was seductive—the women in their languidly draped palazzo pants and layered silk tanks, the men like exotic brigands in rig that was part samurai, part corsair. It was easy to imagine the latter sweeping the former onto an Arab stallion and riding away into the desert, civilization surrendering to barbarism, even if what actually happened was more measured and polite.Ackermann was Pitti's special womenswear guest (Raf Simons shows for Jil Sander tonight as the menswear invitee), and a surprise was promised. You could take your pick: the stunning Renaissance venue (the Palazzo Corsini) whose shadowy salons opened onto a chandelier-lit central courtyard, where a single bat circled while the audience took their seats; the table laid for a Caravaggio bacchanal; the atmospheric musical accompaniment from model Jamie Bochert. Or perhaps the surprise was that Ackermann was offering menswear for the first time. It was costume-y with its mirrored patchworks and brocades, but its boho nomad spirit felt like an authentic expression of the outré world defined in Haider's book. As for his womenswear, the main issue was that there was scarcely enough of it to get a true sense of the collection. One outfit of a leopard-spot camisole and pajama-striped pants ended in a long, animal-printed train that had a gala glamour. Still, it may be more sensible to lift a phrase from the Pitti press release and label the night "a site-specific performance," in which case the clothes should be regarded as merely one facet of an evening's elaborate entertainment.
15 June 2010
Haider Ackermann titled his show A Carte Blanche Named Opium, and the elegantly spare book (he called it acarnet de voyage) that was distributed before his Spring presentation in Florence promised an appropriately dark, sensual head trip. That was a lot for the clothes to live up to. They were beautiful, yes, but so exquisitely studied that the carte blanche, the drama, went missing. Still, the scenario was seductive—the women in their languidly draped palazzo pants and layered silk tanks, the men like exotic brigands in rig that was part samurai, part corsair. It was easy to imagine the latter sweeping the former onto an Arab stallion and riding away into the desert, civilization surrendering to barbarism, even if what actually happened was more measured and polite.Ackermann was Pitti's special womenswear guest (Raf Simons shows for Jil Sander tonight as the menswear invitee), and a surprise was promised. You could take your pick: the stunning Renaissance venue (the Palazzo Corsini) whose shadowy salons opened onto a chandelier-lit central courtyard, where a single bat circled while the audience took their seats; the table laid for a Caravaggio bacchanal; the atmospheric musical accompaniment from model Jamie Bochert. Or perhaps the surprise was that Ackermann was offering menswear for the first time. It was costume-y with its mirrored patchworks and brocades, but its boho nomad spirit felt like an authentic expression of the outré world defined in Haider's book. As for his womenswear, the main issue was that there was scarcely enough of it to get a true sense of the collection. One outfit of a leopard-spot camisole and pajama-striped pants ended in a long, animal-printed train that had a gala glamour. Still, it may be more sensible to lift a phrase from the Pitti press release and label the night "a site-specific performance," in which case the clothes should be regarded as merely one facet of an evening's elaborate entertainment.
15 June 2010
When a designer's profile rises, as Haider Ackermann's has these last several seasons, the pressures to please both early followers and new retail accounts can prove challenging. But Ackermann is as confident as ever; with his serenely gorgeous new collection, he proved that his commercial powers are equal to his impressive creative ones.Ackermann doesn't alter the building blocks from season to season. His signature fitted leather and suede vests and jackets are back, but this time with even more drama. That's thanks to both long, undulating collars that can be wrapped around the neck any number of ways and zipped-on peplums that are easily detached, should the woman wearing them so choose. "I wanted it to be totally up to you," he said backstage, alluding to the clothes' timely utilitarianism. On the bottom, his fans' options will include, as usual, leather leggings or floor-scraping skirts with deep slits, along with new, more tailored trousers.If there was a shortage of the sinuous silk evening numbers that Hollywood has come to appreciate—a laser-cut leather gown with an extravagant flounce at the back was strictly editorial—it was because the designer focused on more commercial offerings for day, like elegant silk pantsuits and striking cocoon coats. Unzipped a bit, they possessed some of the sculptural beauty of his vests and jackets. As a gateway drug to the world of Haider Ackermann, they look like quite seductive stuff.
5 March 2010
Tilda Swinton rocked a red silk jacket and long slim skirt from Haider Ackermann's last show at the Cannes Film Festival, and the paparazzi took notice. Backstage, the designer admitted that all the subsequent attention piled the pressure on, but it also put him in a cheerful mood. "It made me want colors, brightness," he said, and that impulse led to a serenely beautiful Spring collection he called A Passage to India.It wasn't until about halfway through, after a pair of black looks opened the show and a passage of smoky gray followed, that the color came in. Gorgeous saffron yellow and midnight blue were worth the wait. As for the silhouettes, there was a whiff of colonial India in the hammered silk cargo pants and rolled shorts, as well as in the washed leather epauletted jackets and vests. These were worn long and cutaway around the hips, or knotted around the waist. Whereas Balmain's fatigues were sexy, Ackermann's take on the season's developing military trend was soigné. But if his daywear was more approachable, the designer's draped evening dresses were just as uncompromising as they've always been. Take, for instance, the last look: The asymmetric gown covered only one breast, forcing the model who wore it to walk the runway covering the other with her hand. And you'd have to have the body of a goddess, not to mention the confidence of one, to pull off a draped jersey floor-skimmer in dusty lilac, or one of the long, clinging skirts with an inverted-U cutout to the middle thigh. Somehow, though, we suspect that Swinton won't be the only celebrity to wear them.
2 October 2009
A bigger venue, a more convenient time slot, important faces in the crowd—has Haider Ackermann finally arrived? The beautiful collection he showed today certainly suggests he deserves every bit of the newfound attention.The designer has developed something of a cult following for the seductive way he can wrap and drape a long dress and construct the tiniest, supplest leather jackets around. Both of these signatures returned for Fall, the former in a thicker knit with asymmetric shoulder lines, bare expanses of back, and a daring hip-high slit up one leg. The latter came in bold-for-Ackermann shades of ruby and violet, as well as in burnished gold sequins.Where this collection upped the ante was with new embroideries and an assured hand for mannish tailoring. "She's coming from nowhere and brings her treasures with her," Ackermann said of his muse, adding that "she's not androgynous, but there's that side to her and she's trying to bring it out." A racerback tank with a ravaged, uneven hem was embellished all over with silver flower embroideries that reappeared as tuxedo stripes down the sides of slouchy, tapered pants. A long, silver-fringed scarf worn with one of his floor-length, bias-cut silk skirts did double duty as a top. On the more masculine side, he showed the season's oversize blazer in washed brown silk and a pajama set in purple satin. Still, it's his little jackets that set the heart thumping. The best, a corseted cutaway tailcoat in cranberry, worn with a long silk-satin skirt with a train, could increase Ackermann's reach still further: It would make an inspired red-carpet choice for a lithe Hollywood type with an adventurous spirit.
6 March 2009
Haider Ackermann is one of those Paris designers who perpetually operates just under the radar. He's been around for at least half a decade, but for those who haven't seen one of his collections in almost as long, here's a message: Take a new look. Ackermann has a soigné way with the simplest of materials. He can drape humble cotton jersey into a twenty-first-century Vionnet, and what he does with leather could make even Rick Owens envious.Second-skin leather jackets with the sleeves rolled up way past the elbows formed the basis of his collection; they unzipped in sinuous diagonals across the torso and clung to the models' every curve. Satin dresses were similarly cut in spirals, their zippers winking open at the waist or the hips to flash a bit of skin. The highlight of the show was a pair of diaphanous silk dresses shading from black to violet to midnight-blue like a stormy night sky. If there's a criticism to be made it's that Ackermann still hasn't found a way to replicate the swirling sexiness of his jackets and dresses in pants form, but when everything else looks this beautiful, that can be forgiven.
1 October 2008
Tracking Haider Ackermann's progress, you get the impression that fashion could move from giddy florals to strict tailoring and back again and he'd still be doing the wafty draping and layering he's known for. In that regard, he's a lot like Rick Owens, whose work Ackermann sometimes echoes. This time around, the designer named birds and monasteries as his unlikely inspirations. You could see suggestions of the former in the ostrich plumes that peeked from the collars and lapels of side-fastening wrap jackets and coats, as well as in the parachute-silk hoods and tails left exposed by snug little leather bombers. The monastery part came across in the silk robes, although there was nothing monkish about a sexy black number that twisted at the ribs.Ackermann's problems started below the waist. He said he wanted a very long line, but the way he layered soft, slouchy sweats or other more structured pants above leggings, and then bunched them up above the knee, created a droopy-drawers effect, even on the lankiest of his models. And besides, does anybody want to work that hard getting dressed in the morning? Much more appealing were those jackets, and a key densely draped turtleneck dress.
27 February 2008
Flowers? You won't find them sprouting on Haider Ackermann's runway. (Well, not unless you look very, very carefully at a metallic black brocade he used for a kimono coat.)The designer—who said he was "searching for a woman far away, someone eccentric, aristocratic, sensual"—opened with a blazer in a shimmery purple-black, worn with a matching scarf-necked blouse and shorts. There were a number of angular, strong-shouldered jackets in the lineup, paired with the harem pants of the moment or, much more provocatively, with sheer gray or taupe fishtail skirts suspended from the shoulders or waist by the narrowest of strings. Linings will be a must if these pieces make it to retail. And the billowing organza caftans that gave his models a bit of trouble on the runway could use a retail tweak, too—several inches off the bottom would do the trick. The dresses with twisted halter necks in liquid jersey were just as sensual, but much more viable.This was a dark, broodingly sexy collection that was at odds with the season's almost giddy spirits, and though it was not without faults, it was all the more compelling for it.
3 October 2007
"I wanted to take a motorcycle and escape to Tibet," said Haider Ackermann, the peripatetic Colombian-born, Belgian-trained designer whose subtle, sometimes stark clothes are still flying under the radar in the U.S.With this rather abstract concept in mind, Ackermann layered and draped leathers, suedes, and velvets in a deep palette of plums, sage greens, and grays. The most challenging of his looks was a tunic that twisted and bunched at the waist: not an easy area to wear extra fabric ("for some it will be too heavy," he admitted backstage). Modified biker jackets with zippers that twisted from one shoulder to the opposite hip were more user-friendly.The jersey dresses that floated to the floor from gathered and ruched necklines were dramatic in an unembellished, perhaps almost monastic, way. Ackermann was at his best working in this idiom of austerely cool draping. When he added details to the collection's more tailored pieces, though, the results were slightly off: Bands of sequins on walking shorts, and a pair of chiffon pants with a gathered hem, worn over another pair of shorts, were impractical and fussy. That said, a bronze one-button suit was sexy and edgy and way too sophisticated for the windswept wilds of Tibet .
28 February 2007
The season is shaping up to be a pretty one, full of floaty dresses, fizzy prints, and eye-popping color. But trust a Belgian—or, in this case, a Belgian-trained, Colombian-born Frenchman—to deliver a more austere approach to spring/summer.Despite the stark palette of petrol blue, graphite, black, and white, Haider Ackermann’s collection was both light and desirable. His inspiration? "The street," he said simply. "And elegance." For the former, read sporty perforated synthetics cut into skinny racer-back vests and harem pants. And for the latter? That would be any one of his dresses—an effortless, elongated blue sweater, say, or a sinuous gray jersey wrap-over style.Although Ackermann did veer down a few mean streets with his trickier pieces—softly strapped bondage trousers, tough black leather shorts, and a number of raw-hemmed pencil skirts—he never hit a dead end in a collection that was cool and surprisingly graceful, albeit with a dark soul.
6 October 2003