Why Berluti’s creative director wants women to feel at home in his menswear designs

Berluti creative director Haider Ackermann says he doesn’t like variety, but you wouldn’t know it from his debut for the revived heritage brand.

“You know there’s a word that I hate nowadays: ‘diversity’ – I find it quite an ugly word, but that was actually the case for the show because I wanted to reach an audience that the clothes all fit,” says Ackermann.

It’s a day after his debut (autumn-winter 2017) show on the Paris Men’s Fashion Week catwalks and he’s looking dapper, though a little exhausted, sitting behind his desk at the brand’s Paris headquarters.

“With my vision for Berluti, you could be a shaved guy, a long-haired guy, a more romantic guy or more rough. You can be a business guy with those more classic guys I sent down the runway, but also [I want the clothes to work] on women too. The collection belongs to everyone. I give an attitude but don’t want to dictate your clothes.”

And true to his words, it was a critically lauded Berluti debut with a wide variety of men and women modelling. (“There’s nothing sexier than a woman in menswear,” he says.) The show was a statement of inclusion and individuality that’s not always easy to pull off with such aesthetic cohesion on a catwalk.