Tom Ford’s British creative director makes debut at Milan fashion week

Brand reveals more modest look under Peter Hawkings, who replaced founder after Estee Lauder takeover last year

The Tom Ford look - a rakish, glossy 90s-style minimalism for hedonists - has come back into fashion this year, just at the moment when Ford himself has left. Ford sold his company to Estee Lauder for $2.8bn last year and has bowed out of design duties. But at Milan fashion week, a debut collection by his longtime protege, the British designer Peter Hawkings, made a convincingly chic case for the viability of Tom Ford fashion without Tom Ford the man.

The charismatic frontman was absent, but the greatest hits were sung flawlessly. The skinniest of velvet trouser suits were not so much tailored as trimmed to the bone. Silk blouses were unbuttoned to the navel. Evening sandals teetered on needle heels. There were shiny mock-croc coats, safari jackets, sculptural belt buckles slung around the hips of slinky dresses. On a low-lit catwalk at 9.30pm, every model wore sunglasses.