The inspiration for Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2026 beauty look came straight from the runway—literally. Creative Director Haider Ackermann and Global Makeup Artist Lucy Bridge pulled directly from the deep navy, high-shine floor models would walk down for the show. “Haider was telling me about the runway and how it’s this really lacquered, navy floor,” Bridge tells me backstage. “We wanted to emulate that same texture within the lip.”
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The inspiration for Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2026 beauty look came straight from the runway—literally. Creative Director Haider Ackermann and Global Makeup Artist Lucy Bridge pulled directly from the deep navy, high-shine floor models would walk down for the show. “Haider was telling me about the runway and how it’s this really lacquered, navy floor,” Bridge tells me backstage. “We wanted to emulate that same texture within the lip.”
To start, she created a base of "healthy, glowing skin" using the brand's new Architecture Radiance Hydrating Foundation SPF 50--a light-reflective foundation that editors have been practically fighting to get samples of. Then, it was time for the lips to shine. The shades mirrored the collection itself: warm browns, deep chocolates, and flashes of neon pinks and peaches. “The neon really brings it into Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford’s world,” Bridge says. The bright cherry-red shade was a standout, which she achieved using a four-step process: blending a base of Tom Ford Runway Lip Color in 18 Unzip and Lip Color Matte in 08 Velvet Cherry, adding a swipe of Slim Lip Color Shine in 16 Scarlet Rouge to add dimension, then Tom Ford Gloss Luxe in 01 Disclosure for the glass-like vinyl effect.
Faith Xue
Though the lips were certainly the star of the show, a fellow editor and I were especially entranced by the eyes. Bridge engineered what she called a “broken lash” effect—placing false clusters only at the inner and outer corners, then amping them up with Tom Ford Extreme Mascara in 01 Raven. The idea, she explains, was a callback to a Jean Paul Gaultier show she worked on with Ackermann years ago. “He wanted to restart the story with the broken lash, but in a more refined, elegant way,” she says. (Translation: consider this permission to cancel your lash-fill appointment.)
The push-pull of opposites—glossy vs. matte, pristine vs. undone—feels like the throughline of this fashion month. And what’s more opposite, really, than a lacquered, cherry-slick lip paired with spiky, broken-up lashes? It’s unexpected, arresting, and pure Haider.
