Haider Ackermann in talks with Berluti

Could Haider Ackermann be Berluti’s next creative director? The French designer is believed to be in talks with luxury menswear label Berluti to succeed Alessandro Sartori, according to a report by FashionMag.com.

Paris-based Berluti has been actively looking to replace Sartori, who left the brand earlier this year to join Ermengildo Zegna. At the time, Berluti’s CEO Antoine Arnault told Bloomberg that he was looking for ‘a new creative director whose aim would be to infuse the brand with a more casual mood, which we are currently lacking, and who would shake up the label’s ready-to-wear style, making it more lively and contemporary’.

Colombian-born Ackerman, who is a graduate of the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Art and is based in Paris, launched his eponymous brand in 2002 and has enjoyed a meteoric rise since. Legendary fashion critic Suzy Menkes called him ‘a rare hope for the future’ and Karl Lagerfeld has gone on record claiming Ackermann would be a worthy successor.

Ackermann has been courted by various fashion houses, such as Dior, but has so far stuck with his own label. He is known for his modern, simple cuts, often turning to asymmetric silhouettes and mixed materials.