Turns out, Harder Ackerman’s Tom Ford is just as sexy with the lights switched on. Having previously drawn guests into noir worlds, last night, inside the Place de Vendôme, guests were invited into a tranquil all-white carpeted show space, greeted by a vodka martini with a twist or a glass of straight tequila on the rocks.

A sudden super strobe retuned our vision to Haider’s, and the cube was lit. From the doorway, Ackermann’s characters appeared in monochromatic looks, lounging on the wall before striding across the runway – the loucheness of the Tom Ford walk something entirely in and of itself. Forgoing the traditional straight-up-and-down runway format, models mingled in the minimalist show space, making eye contact with guests and appearing in sporadic bursts as trios or pairs. Naturally, the season’s theme was an overarching sense of seduction.

“Seduction is a dialogue. Opposites that attract, the encounter of an embrace, personal histories that dissolve,” read the show notes. The sentiment of contradiction rang true throughout; supple cashmere was worn with skintight leather, while delicately crafted chiffon gowns walked alongside the structured silhouettes of Ackermann’s imitable tailoring. Tension and temptation felt palpable, articulating a “magnified sense of daily life” through garments which flirted with turpitude. Traditional suiting was twisted and warped for the alternate reality Ackermann built, one in which an air of sex and possibility clings to every moment. A further lean into the twisted fate of seduction, the brooding villain of Patrick Bateman was brought to life on the runway in a nod to the villain’s American Psycho wardrobe with transparent raincoats worn over two-piece suits (a Patrick Bateman Halloween costume only Patrick Bateman could afford.) “It seduces, drawing in. Come closer, and see,” read the final line of this season’s show notes. Teasing and tempting, Tom Ford continues to prove that sex does, in fact, sell.