TOM FORD & GIVENCHY: THE POWER OF DEBUT COLLECTIONS IN REVIVING HERITAGE BRANDS
BY NICOLE ZENIOU
In a shape-shifting era for fashion, heritage brands seem to be struggling to preserve their identity which is often lost in translation via the constant changing of the guard. But too many changes of direction via the churning of creative directors can have detrimental effects on houses. By appointing new talent that each successively imprints their own personal style onto the brand can eventually erode what made the brand iconic.
Nonetheless, changing the guard at the creative helm is often deemed necessary in order to transform stagnant brands and boost their profitability. In fact, there is an entire trajectory of creative directors who have successfully reignited some of fashion’s top houses. But it was those who managed to introduce new designer aesthetics whilst drawing heavily from the house codes as informed by the archives.
Of recently, that trajectory might just include creative directors Sarah Burton for Givenchy and Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford who both made their much-anticipated house debuts during Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear Fall/Winter 2025-2026. Designers who might have just managed to emulate and further what the brands once-upon-a-time meant for the world and then later became.
Givenchy: “To go forward, you have to go back to the beginning.”
Sarah Burton was appointed creative director of the LVMH-owned house Givenchy in September 2024 following her 25-plus tenure at Kering-owned house Alexander McQueen, becoming Givenchy’s fourth designer in less than ten years. Facing the challenge her new appointment entails, as the brand had been struggling to define its path (the house had been searching to fill the successor vacancy since Mathew Williams’ departure in December 2023), for her debut FW25 Womenswear collection Burton followed her “natural instinct to go back to pattern-cutting, to craftsmanship, to silhouette”. Shuffling her way through the house’s archives she found brown paper packets containing Hubert de Givenchy’s 1952 - saved from demolition - first couture show patterns which became part of her creative process. She went back to the ground-zero beginning (“[T]o me it’s about the atelier. It’s the heart and soul of Givenchy”), in order to go forward, in order to reconstruct the house’s DNA by honouring the maison’s origins. Her debut collection aptly named “Under Construction” - an ode both to craftsmanship and the brand’s DNA - was even presented on Friday, March 7 at the maison’s address since 1955, in the salon on 3 Avenue Georges V.
The collection was based on that 1952 Givenchy couture show she found in those paper packets. Burton reinvented the designs, bringing the rich archive of the storied house to the now by making it “mean today to women”, she said in a preview. It also notably included wearable couture pieces. Couture is part of the Givenchy legacy and the use of chantilly lace, bullet bras, dramatic bold bows and the accentuated hourglass waist was purposefully hinting at a new opportunity that Burton will introduce back to the brand as part of her appointment - she will soon be relaunching Givenchy’s couture business.
She prepared the ground by providing Givenchy with a new silhouette. Burton stripped away the layers, lengths and proportions with the aim of creating something both architectural but also spectacular. “I am interested in the intersection of craftsmanship and form. The beauty of a very feminine tailored jacket redefined through traditional menswear construction,” she said, referring to a strong of shoulder, nipped at the waist jacket skirt with exposed seams which she showed with bare legs. It is clear that she understood from the get-go the challenge-as-accepted to restore Givenchy’s esteemed and central role within the industry, give it a clearer fashion identity and put a pin on its place in contemporary culture.
Tom Ford: A seductive homage to the legacy-past
Haider Ackermann was named creative director of Tom Ford in September 2024 following the departure of Peter Hawkings, after just two seasons. Tom Ford, who founded the brand in 2005, had stepped down in 2023 following the $2.8 billion sale of his company to The Estée Lauder Companies Inc (ELC). The appointment comes at a critical time for the brand which faces a series of headwinds to include sales which reportedly fell by 12.2 per cent in Q3 2024. A lot is thus expected of the Colombian designer who run his eponymous label from 2002 to 2020. And Ackermann is up for the task.
In a statement released the morning of his appointment, Ackermann said: “It is with tremendous pride that I will seek to honour the legacy of Tom Ford, a man I have long admired and have the utmost respect for.” The time has arrived; the first full view of his interpretation of the codes established by Ford (to include seduction) were revealed at a runway show during the FW25 edition of Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday, March 5.
The show featured elements that drew from the brand’s many eras, reviving what was, but also embracing the future and shaping what’s next for the brand in a quietly forceful manner. His exuberant use of vivid, vibrant colour (canary yellow, pale pink, faded neon green, pastel lilac and bluebell) coupled with the use of seductive black (in Ford signature fashion) and applied across a collection lined in cashmere, respected the house codes whilst also balancing the new designer’s aesthetics. Ackermann lived up to expectations - he leaned into the collection, adding a strong, intriguing, sensual, new undercurrent - layer, and in so doing, secured the Tom Ford confidence and glamour legacy.
Restoring houses’s fortunes in an an era where everything is changing
Designer debuts raise the question of what’s at stake when fashion houses cycle through designers via the revolving door of fashion. It’s clear that we are in the middle of uncertain times for fashion and at-large. But one thing remains steady: Nobody will ever be able to deny good work. It’s what these two much-anticipated and ambitious debuts told us over memorable shows during Paris Fashion Week - even though the full changing of the guard takes time to restore a house’s fortunes and yield results. But these are also times that mark a changing of the tides, and houses, who no longer have the luxury of soul searching, are seeking experienced hands, or better yet, for a grasp for stability amid a market in a constant ebb and flux.
Bungalow 28 is a tech and creative agency dedicated to fashion, luxury and cultural brands worldwide.