Haider Ackermann: Tailor Made

It was a hyper-globalized scenario that brought designer Haider Ackermann and photographer Erik Madigan Heck together: the Colombian-born, Belgian-trained Ackermann—a fashion world sensation thanks to his innovative draping and abstracted leather creations—was in Paris, busily preparing to show his first menswear collection in Italy, when he phoned the New York-based, Minneapolis-born Heck and invited him to Florence to document the collection prior to its runway debut. The two had never met, though Ackermann (who counts Tilda Swinton as muse and advocate) was an admirer of Heck’s images for the 2009 Ann Demeulemeester retrospective in Antwerp, and felt he made the ideal documentarian for the collection. The ensuing collaboration unfolded at the Palazzo Corsini in Florence, resulting in a series of painterly vignettes that play up Ackermann’s vivid color palette––stormy blues, moss-like greens, mustard yellows and fleshy creams that lend an Old Masters sensibility. The series, initially published in Nomenus, has been commissioned by Milan’s 10 Corso Como for a special box set containing five original prints. The sets will be released on December 23, and limited to an exclusive ten, in homage to the influential concept store’s iconic address.