British designer Peter Hawkings made his Tom Ford debut at Milan Fashion Week late on Thursday, offering an array of sleek suits, slinky dresses, and towering stilettos for women next summer. The collection will be the first since former Tom Ford owner Estee Lauder sold the clothing line for $2.8bn last year, and the label shifted its focus to beauty and perfumes. The debut tested whether the Tom Ford look – a rakish 90s minimalism for hedonists – still has legs.
The show, set under low lighting, was a greatest hits tour through the distinctive codes that define the brand. Fitted trouser suits paired with tiny matching shorts, figure-hugging long frocks, and short leather dresses delivered on the sleek front, while gold tasseled skirts and dresses offered a more playful dimension. A line of lustrous velvet suits – in dusty pinks and blues that recalled Ford’s iconic red velvet suit for Gucci (worn by Gwyneth Paltrow for an MTV VMA moment in 1996) – added a touch of glamour, as did satin shirts unbuttoned to the navel and strings of gold hardware hung around the hips of dresses.
Hawkings, who met his wife Whitney Bromberg (founder of flower delivery service Flowerbx) when he worked for the designer in the 90s, said he wanted to bridge the gap between men’s and women’s collections and make the brand more cohesive. He also wants to continue designing menswear, but he hopes to have the same team based in London working on both.
It’s challenging to take on such an ambitious portfolio of styles and retain the enticing, high-fashion appeal key to the Tom Ford brand. But judging by the fully dressed elegance of this collection, Hawkings is well on his way to achieving that goal.
As he continues to adapt the look of his namesake brand to the new era, it’s clear that Hawkings is relying on his deep understanding of the house ethos and the legacy that lies beneath it. This is a solid debut, and he may prove himself a worthy successor to the man who started it all.
