Peter Hawkings Is Leaving Tom Ford After Less Than a Year as Creative Director

Tom Ford left his namesake brand a little more than a year ago. Now, the company is undergoing a shakeup once again.

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Peter Hawkings is stepping down as Tom Ford’s creative director after less than a year on the job, Hypebeast reported on Monday. The designer took over after Ford’s departure, and his last collection will be shown in September. Hawkings’s successor will be named soon, according to a press release from the brand.

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

Hawkings worked with Ford for almost 25 years, Hypebeast noted, eventually becoming senior vice president of Tom Ford menswear before taking the reins as creative director. When Hawkings took over, Ford called him “an incredibly talented leader with tremendous industry experience,” and said he had been “instrumental in the success of the brand.”

However, it sounds like Zegna Group is focused on increasing the company’s womenswear sales, according to Hypebeast. And given that Hawkings’s background is in menswear, it makes sense that leadership may want to bring in someone else who has deeper experience in women’s fashion. (Zegna currently has a 20-year license agreement to produce Tom Ford’s clothing line and can renew that for another 10 years, too.)

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“I would like to express my gratitude to Peter for his exceptional contributions to Tom Ford from the very beginning,” Guillaume Jesel, president and CEO of Tom Ford, said in a statement.

Tom Ford has been riding the winds of change for a couple of years now. Back in July 2022, it was first rumored that Ford was looking to sell his brand. A deal finally took place in November of that year, with Estée Lauder taking control of the company for $2.8 billion. Ford stuck around for a few months before designing his last collection in April 2023. And while Hawkings was at the helm for about a year, it’s time for someone else to impart their vision on the brand.

The Tom Ford switch up isn’t the only leadership change that has hit the fashion industry recently. Earlier this month, Richemont announced that Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier, would be replaced by Louis Ferla, the current head of Vacheron Constantin. Shortly after, the Swiss luxury group revealed that Catherine Rénier would take over for Nicolas Bos, the CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. Looks like we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see who takes Hawkings’s place, though.

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