Tom Ford

Ford’s 1990s Gucci run — followed by Yves Saint Laurent ready-to-wear — remade luxury as spectacle: velvet hipsters, unbuttoned satin, advertising that scandalized and sold in equal measure. The label he then built under his own name distilled that worldview into evening-first dressing — impeccable black tailoring, liquid gowns, and a beauty and eyewear empire — before the Estée Lauder Companies acquired the brand in a multibillion-dollar deal in 2022.

Ackermann arrived after a brief successor tenure, bringing a cult reputation built at his own label: languid tailoring, saturated color, and a romantic severity Ford himself had long publicly admired. His Tom Ford keeps the house’s sensual gloss but slows it down — less Studio 54, more midnight — and has returned the label to critical conversation in Paris.