When he's not hobnobbing with James Bond icon Daniel Craig, looking after his other celebrity customers or thinking about what movie his production company will make next, Tom Ford has a serious passion - clothes and how to make people look and feel fantastic in them. Ford has boutiques in New York and Milan with dozens more planned around the world. They are fashioned like private homes with fi replaces, bars, butlers and even works of art from Ford’s personal collection. As Ford says of his designs: "In a world where things are increasingly disposable – where aesthetics are dictated by trend, and quality by ephemera – I wanted to create something of lasting value."
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He explains: "The key was to create a suit that was totally distinct in style as well as feel. It is very British, but with the lightness of hand of Italian tailoring. So, I call it a hybrid international style. It’s classic tailoring signatures combined with my design philosophy - they will never go out of style." His business ethos is not only about quality and style but also that little bit of magic that comes with the service ethos.
"If you come to our store and want to buy a tailor-made suit, you can bring along the
amed for his legendary design skills and his fi lm directing talent, Tom Ford is a fascinating man who seems to make success wherever he goes. The Best You asks him about suits, success and his approach to life, design and art.
things you carry on you, and we will make pockets for them in the right places. I try to make things for the customer." It's a far cry from his experiences in the elite bespoke tailors of Savile Row. Ford describes the Savile Row experience as rather basic. "I went to one of the best tailoring fi rms in existence There was a prevailing sternness there which I associated with being a child and having to see the school principal. The house has a certain way of cutting things and I would argue over the way I wanted my lapel, how roped I wanted my shoulder, or how fi tted I wanted the silhouette to be."
It is this that really distinguishes Ford's boutiques.
"In today’s world we have lost the idea of service. We have so much of everything but without a human touch and a great attention to detail. In a world where service is increasingly automated and where we communicate more and more through our computers or over a phone, having an actual person help you and make sure everything is exactly as you would like it to be adds tremendous value to the experience of acquiring something new."
His attention to personal connection in the customer experience has been central to his progress. That, and an unerring instinct for what is good for him.
It could all have been so very different. As a teenager, he acted in some "bad tv shows", he admits. But even then he had the Midas touch, at one point appearing in 12 national tv advertisements in the US simultaneously, netting him hundreds of thousands a year. But one day, he decided to quit acting.