Since he was a child growing up in countries across Europe and Africa, Haider Ackermann has been an observer and a storyteller. An acclaimed creative director, and recipient of WWD’s 2026 Honor for Womenswear Designer of the Year, Ackermann continues to channel his fascination with different cultures, customs and geographies into his collections for Tom Ford and Canada Goose.
The designer, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and who has lived in countries including Ethiopia, Chad, Algeria, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, said “when you’re a young child and you don’t speak the language, you become the observer. You’re looking at all the gestures, the different identities, and building your own stories and dreams. You are feeding your own imagination.”
During an interview with WWD Milan bureau chief Luisa Zargani, he said: “All this helped me to be the person I am now. I’m still in my little world — nothing has changed — and all those observations, all those memories, become part of you. They become your story.”
Ackermann recalled some of the diverse experiences he had growing up, and all of the culture clashes from “austere Antwerp” to Africa, which was full of color. “I was always somewhere in between,” he said, adding that all of those experiences shaped his aesthetics.
He recalled the veiled women in Muslim countries “like ghosts walking around the walls of the Medina. As a child, you’re curious about the person behind those veils and chadors. You’re trying to find out who those women are and to understand them. Perhaps that’s what I’m trying to do in my job. I believe that I will never understand them, but at least I’m trying.”
That sense of wonder, and of being the outsider, continues to guide Ackermann’s work, for Tom Ford in particular.
He said that even when Ford himself was designing, “it was never only about clothes. He tried to build up a whole story. He was looking for attitude, gestures, a kind of elegance. When you look at the catwalk, and at what we’re doing now, the clothes are [still] just a little fragment. I always start with the music. I know the songs in advance, I know what the hair and the makeup are going to be, and then suddenly the collection starts building up. It’s quite cinematographic.”
Ackermann, who joined Tom Ford in 2024, also wants his runway models to take part in the narrative and help create a sense of escapism during the shows.
“If, for 10 minutes, the crowd can forget about the noise outside, all the violence and their own problems, if they can dream about those handsome girls and boys who are passing in front of them [that is the goal]. We are there to talk about beauty and I think nowadays it’s even more necessary than ever.”
Ahead of every show Ackermann tells the models to “please enjoy that time, because it’s your moment — just enjoy it and embrace it. You have those minutes to seduce, because the house is all about seduction.”
Seduction could be the Tom Ford house slogan. Ackermann said he could not refuse the seductive Ford when he called and offered him the job as creative director of the brand.
“He had this very sensual voice, but it was a strange moment because I did not even listen to him. I already knew what I was going to do. There was something very instinctive, almost animalistic about my response. I was already gone,” said Ackermann, who also talked at length about his relationship with Ford; the company’s owner, The Estée Lauder Cos., and its long-term fashion licensee Ermenegildo Zegna Group and eyewear licensee Marcolin Group.
With Ford, “We have a dialogue. We have our private conversations — and they are very private. And no, we do not talk about work. He’s given me carte blanche. He’s busy with his own career, and he’s doing really, really well. And I’m trying to do my thing,” Ackermann said.
He said Ford’s collections “were very much about sexuality. I mean, it was back in the ’90s, and that’s also what made the whole thing exciting. I prefer to talk about sensuality. I’m much more reserved than Mr. Ford, I’m much more shy, as you can see. I’m trying to find a kind of discretion in all of this. But you still have to play with the [house] codes. It’s interesting.”
Ackermann said there is a sense of complicity among all the stakeholders in the business. “They trust what I’m doing, the direction I’m taking. We all have the same vision, and are embracing this new journey [together].”
Despite that trust, the pressure is always on. “You feel the pressure every time you care about something, and I love what I’m doing, I really do. I don’t feel the pressure so much from them. I feel the pressure from myself. I want to satisfy Mr. Ford, who invited me on this journey, so that’s my first goal. I’m harder [on] myself than others are on me, because I care [so much].”
While Ackermann may be hard on himself, he’s no taskmaster with his staff. The designer said he wants “kindness” to rule in his design studio.
“There’s not enough of it, and I think that if we are all kind to each other, if we all believe in a dream, if we all stand by each other, we can achieve so much more. You can achieve, you can move walls with kindness. It may sound very naive, perhaps, but it’s what I do,” he said.
He derives great joy from designing clothing. “That is what makes me happy and what I embrace. There are many very talented people around this brand and I think there’s more focus on real work, than on social media,” compared with the past.
Ackermann also talked about his other, very different job as creative director of Canada Goose. “I go from a [tailored] suit to a puffer jacket — it’s a world apart,” he said, adding that he loves traveling for work and the time he’s able to spend in nature.
“I’m getting older, and I want to be more in nature. Sometimes, when you go back to nature, you become closer to yourself. You’re far away from home, you have the time to ask yourself the right questions, to breathe, to listen to your own voice and not to all the noise around you. It gives me calmness and serenity and I’m very grateful to Canada Goose to give me those opportunities. We do the most beautiful expeditions,” he said.
He’s learning so much working for the outerwear brand. “You feel like a young kid, studying and learning everything. It makes your heart beat fast every morning,” he said, adding that his own journey is just beginning. “I want to achieve so much more, and I think my best years are yet to come. I feel ready for my future.”