In a season marked by creative directorial firsts, the French designer continues his successful run at Tom Ford with one of Paris’ most talked-about collections – but also opens the floor for another stellar debut: Lucy Bridge, the brand’s newly appointed Global Makeup Artist. Wonderland slips backstage ahead of the big night to take some notes on artistry mastery.
Paris’ high voltage was already felt on the Eurostar tracks leaving St Pancras this season. The city is reaching boiling point after six months of major creative appointments across the industry’s most coveted houses. But then, there’s the texture. Sure, we’re all tuning in to see what the newly anointed CDs have in store for Dior, Loewe and Chanel. But we’re staying for the consistently strong delivery of mainstays – and, as expected, Wednesday evening belonged to Haider Ackermann’s Tom Ford show.
Fans of the French designer know exactly what to expect from his signature codes. Perhaps what makes Ackermann such a sharp, natural continuation of Tom Ford’s legacy is their shared ability to incarnate the animalistic through garment-making. David Bowie’s “Heroes” booms in the background as models strut, embodying lyrics with no colloquialism, as true Tom Ford kings and queens. They’re feral, slightly dangerous, and very, very sexy. Yet sensuality in Ackermann’s vocabulary is more verb than noun – on a lacquered navy-blue runway at the heart of Place Vendôme, the designer presented a collection that doesn’t simply celebrate the innately hot, Kama Sutra-reading sex symbol, but the horny, sex-on-the-brain, dopamine-rushed gal. Sex, in Ackermann’s world, is not a defining state but a lingering attitude. And what better start for Lucy Bridge’s new vision for the house, as its newly anointed Global Makeup Artist.
“If Haider [Ackermann] doesn’t want to kiss that lip, it’s not making it to the runway,” she tells Wonderland backstage, just hours before the show begins. Though Bridge and Ackermann have long been collaborators, Tom Ford’s Spring 26 collection marks the first time the British makeup artist will unveil her vision as creative lead of the (very successful, very sophisticated) beauty arm of the house. “As you can see on the board, we’ve got many different looks this season,” she continues, pointing to a collaged moodboard behind us. “We decided to take inspiration from the runway floor – that lacquered navy finish – and I really wanted to emulate this through the lips.”
Haider’s very-kissable lips are at the heart of the show, a continuation of last season’s story, she explains – this time lacquered with a mirrored finish. My eyes are immediately drawn to a snob-looking, blue-tinged pale pink sitting side by side with a candy peach. “We have mustards, warm browns, neon reds, and some pastel and neon peaches thrown in too,” she says, beginning to recreate the lip on one of the models. Bridge’s work feels architectural – each lip crafted with “at least five layers of lipstick,” carefully and thinly applied to create tonal concoctions developed specifically for the runway.
“If Haider [Ackermann] doesn’t want to kiss that lip, it’s not making it to the runway.”
“For the base of reds, I’ve used two Tom Ford lipsticks, Unzip and Velvet Cherry, mixed together to create a custom shade,” she explains. “Haider is incredibly particular with colour, so we really worked together to find tones that harmonise with the makeup and clothing. It’s really important for us to make custom shades that match the textures and garments.”
Then comes the complexion: incredibly healthy, “and pure,” created with Tom Ford Beauty’s Architecture Radiance Hydrating Foundation SPF 50+ – a rich, serum-like formula that’s easily one of the strongest in its category among recent launches. The look is finished with Twiggy-esque broken lashes, an intriguing touch to the models’ magnetic poise. “We’ve added false lashes to the inner and outer corners, leaving the middle completely clean,” she explains, pinching the hairs into little clusters of delicious, voluminous lashes.
Like Ford and Ackermann, Bridge’s artistry carries the ability to transport us elsewhere, to conjure the emotions and atmospheres of both past and future. An industry darling for her masterful play with colour, shape and texture, her appointment is a confident move from the maison that signals a keen eye forward and an openness to reinvention. A similar feeling lingers with their latest fragrance launch, Oud Voyager – the scent that also served as backdrop to Ackermann’s cinematic desire fest. A fresh yet layered take on one of the industry’s most celebrated notes, infused with the brightness of peonies and geranium, and perfectly balanced with oud’s resinous depth, it feels unapologetically avant-garde.
Spring never looked so good.
Words by Sofia Ferreira
Photography by Emma Rahmani
