Tom Ford Joins Ranks of Brands Seeking New Creative Director

Updated July 22 at 10:11 p.m. GMT

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MILAN — Another luxury brand is seeking a new designer.

As houses from Chanel to Givenchy search for creative directors, the Tom Ford brand on Monday revealed that Peter Hawkings is exiting the company. Hawkings unveiled his first collection as creative director of the brand in September last year during Milan Fashion Week .

“I would like to express my gratitude to Peter for his exceptional contributions to Tom Ford from the very beginning,” said Guillaume Jesel, president and chief executive officer of Tom Ford and Luxury Business Development, The Estée Lauder Cos.

“I want to thank Peter for his collaboration since Tom Ford Fashion became part of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group. Along with his team, Peter has contributed to this important initial phase of development. I wish him all the best in his next chapter,” said Lelio Gavazza, CEO of Tom Ford Fashion.

The brand’s spring 2025 collection will be presented in the Milan showroom in September and a successor will be revealed in the near future, the company said on Monday.

Sources said Hawkings was let go, and a Milan-based source said it was all “very sudden.”

Another source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was “no specific element that triggered” Hawkings’ departure, but attributed it to a mixture of reasons, specifically “to a lack of chemistry” with the designer’s team. Once he took on the top creative role, Hawkings “did not succeed in creating a team. In this industry, you need to make sacrifices, much is expected from the designers working with a creative director, so he or she, in turn, has to be there giving guidelines yes, but also listening, being part of the team, working together, without feeling entitled. You build a winning team if there is strong chemistry, and there was none in this case.”

Hawkings’ collections were met with mixed reviews although he was certainly not new to the label, as he began working with Ford in 1998 as a menswear design assistant at Gucci , going on to become the senior men’s designer at the company. He left Gucci in 2006 to join Ford in the launch of his eponymous brand, where Hawkings oversaw the design and production of menswear, eventually adding accessories including eyewear, bags, shoes and jewelry. He rose through the ranks to become senior vice president of Tom Ford menswear.

Ford showed his final women’s collection in April 2023 and selected Hawkings to succeed him, describing him as “an incredibly talented leader with tremendous industry experience,” which led Ford to be confident that his own “commitment to creating fashion products with the highest level of design and quality will continue.”

Given his proximity to Ford, Hawkings’ collections were indeed aligned with the brand’s aesthetic and vision — even too much, down to the velvet banquette show seating. Reviewing his debut collection, WWD’s West Coast executive editor Booth Moore characterized as “very controlled, very commercial collection,” revisiting Ford’s greatest hits, “but hopefully, as Hawkings grows into the role, he will let loose with more creative spark of his own.” Unfortunately, his second collection, shown in February for fall, “didn’t dare enough.”

A lot is at stake for the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which is responsible for all of Tom Ford’s fashion business.

Chairman and CEO Gildo Zegna has repeatedly said he was focused on propelling Tom Ford Fashion to stand among the top 10 luxury fashion names in the world.

The group is slated to report preliminary first-half results on Thursday and analysts will surely take the opportunity to ask for guidance on the changes at Tom Ford.

Hawkings’ exit “in our view could add uncertainty to Zegna ’s growth story, with more colour likely to be shared” on July 25 “amid continued weak trends of the Chinese consumers,” said Chris Huang at UBS Investment Bank on Monday. Huang forecast Tom Ford Fashion sales in the second quarter would reach 88 million euros, around 18 percent of the group’s total.

Luca Solca, senior analyst at Bernstein, said he imagined the decision to change course was triggered by “disappointing results.”

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Karen Harvey, CEO of her namesake advisory services and executive search firm, said Hawkings “maintained the brand’s codes through menswear, which have delivered results season after season, and under Mr. Ford’s direction, Peter and Tom shared a natural dialogue and handwriting that strengthened Tom Ford’s menswear identity through its unique silhouettes and well made product, in their partnership with Zegna. However, these are challenging times for luxury and fashion.”

Harvey believes Zegna is likely recognizing “that not all menswear creative directors can easily transition into women’s fashion. While Peter is undoubtedly talented, this shift into women’s may have taken him some time and perhaps required him to rethink how he would structure his studio.” She observerd that this kind of transitions “are not always easy. Given the aspirations Zegna has for the Tom Ford brand, this move could be sensible for both the company and Peter.”

Asked if she could imagine a successor, Harvey said that “without knowing Zegna’s overarching strategy, it’s quite difficult to say with certainty,” but that a female creative director could accelerate the women’s empowerment the brand stands for.

“It would be interesting to consider someone like Martine Rose, who has such a modern and fresh take on womenswear coming from her heritage in menswear, and if the leadership at Zegna were interested in reimagining the brand for a modern woman from a female perspective, I think she could be super interesting. Even though Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski might not immediately be the first thought, I think she could put her hand to anything iconic, and tap into what women would really want from any brand today. Lastly, on my short list from a female perspective, I would think about Clare Waight Keller, in that she has equal experience in men’s and women’s and worked for Tom Ford in the early 2000s.

“If Zegna really wanted to bring in a male creative director of note, though, both Hedi Slimane and Riccardo Tisci could do something interesting. But I would also love to see what Julien Dossena would do with this brand, as I think he is really hitting his stride in so many ways.”

Alessandro Maria Ferreri, founder and CEO of consultancy The Style Gate, said the founder’s business model was winning from the start, because it relied on two strong licenses, eyewear and perfumes, leveraging Ford’s own persona and the strong identity of the brand. “This was a very intelligent move because licenses reach consumers at the entry price level and have very high margins, especially fragrances, with enormous budgets for advertising and communication that help strengthen brand awareness and overcome any difficult moment — Pierre Cardin was the first to teach us this. How many consumers spraying themselves with “Thierry Mugler” or “Paco Rabanne” would know whether those creatives are still alive or dead?”

Tom Ford’s business strategy allowed him to protect the brand, “making sure it would enjoy eternal youth and eternal sales,” continued Ferreri, who conceded there was some displeasure in seeing the continuous turnover of creative directors “especially when they have been within a brand for decades, but in terms of [Tom Ford’s] core business, the sun will rise again in any case tomorrow because those categories are bullet-proof.”

The Estée Lauder Cos. acquired Tom Ford’s company in November 2022 in a deal valued at $2.8 billion. Under Lauder, Ford’s men’s and women’s ready-to-wear is licensed to Zegna, which previously held the license for menswear since around 2006. At Lauder, Jesel is Tom Ford’s president and CEO.

With the Ford deal, Zegna, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, ventured into new territory: In addition to Ford’s men’s and women’s rtw, Zegna is now licensed for Ford’s accessories and underwear, fine jewelry, childrenswear, textile and home design products. Zegna Group is in charge of the end-to-end Tom Ford Fashion business, from collection creation and development to merchandising through to production, as well as retail and wholesale distribution. Marcolin holds the perpetual license for Tom Ford eyewear.

Tom Ford’s fashion operation is expected to create synergies for Zegna, which also owned a 15 percent stake in the company prior to Lauder’s acquisition, and could allow it to strengthen its womenswear segment.

As reported, the Ermenegildo Zegna group, which also comprises the Zegna and Thom Browne brands, last year more than doubled its net profit, which reached 135.7 million euros, compared with 65.3 million euros in 2022, on revenues that rose 27.6 percent to 1.9 billion euros.

The Tom Ford Fashion segment generated revenues of 235.5 million euros and adjusted operating losses of 1.7 million euros, mainly attributable to the 15.6 million euro one-off charges related to the purchase price allocation.

Zegna named Gavazza to the newly created position of CEO of Tom Ford Fashion last year. He brought more than 20 years of experience in global luxury, joining from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where he was executive vice president, sales and retail at jeweler Bulgari.

At the time of his appointment in July, Gildo Zegna touted Gavazza’s “world-class business acumen,” his “track record of strong global leadership” and his “outstanding luxury expertise” across retail management, wholesale distribution, marketing, digital and key markets, including China, expressing his confidence that the executive would “prove invaluable” in the development of the fashion brand globally.

Tom Ford and chairman Domenico De Sole continued to serve as brand advisers through the end of last year.

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