Haider Ackerman’s Poetic Abandon

PARIS, France — A designer who has lightened up a lot of late is Haider Ackermann. The man he has in mind is still a dishevelled, wonderfully decadent, self-centred contemporary dandy — you imagine the Ackermanm hero meandering inside a brutalized lavish mansion, or into the courtyard of the Musee Galliera, which so magically framed the show yesterday. Yet, the stiff brocades, the architectural constructions and lustrous colours so typically Ackermann have been replaced by ease, fluidity and, dare we say, even a certain cheerfulness. The collection struck a chord with a bright dash of pink and mint green and with a general air of poetic abandon. tailoring looked fluid, nonchalant and sophisticated, in a poet maudit kind of way, and it was a blast.