A screech of feedback and the strafing of spotlights pushed by technicians hidden behind eaves above the glorious courtyard in front of us signaled the start of this tight, bright, stay-up-all night Haider Ackermann collection. We were alfresco, and a light pattering of fat, slow, humidity-swollen raindrops had faded just a few moments earlier. “I would have loved it if they walked in the rain,” said the designer afterwards: “It would have been beautiful.” And semi-appropriate too, because the irregular white on yellow, red, black, or pink print silk shirts in this collection were a creative reinterpretation of sweat-drenchedness achieved post a dusk ’til dawn session of sybaritic dancing. Ackermann explained: “I have this gang of young kids around me. And they are full-on. And I wanted to capture their energy. They are just kids who want to dance and party and be happy. They don’t have the heaviness of the world.”
The women’s looks in this show played loose, dark, and sometimes severe counterbalance to the often fitted but always frolicsome saturated abundance of the men’s. Those silks, painted or metallic-treated leathers, plus shrapnel-burst intarsias on bombers and jackets were for peacocks of the night. Ackermann is known as a master of the crumpled-crotch tight pant but his high-hemmed carrot silhouette was see-in-the-dark stand-out too. To like Haider Ackermann you have to like Haider Ackermann, but this was particularly likeable Haider Ackermann.
