38 | FASHION
Upon graduation, Ford concealed the fact that he had a degree in architecture, not fashion, and ruthlessly pursued sportswear designer Cathy Hardwick until she gave him a job as design assistant. After two years, Ford moved to casualwear company Perry Ellis where he worked alongside fellow rising star, Marc Jacobs. Growing increasingly bored with American fashion, he left the company in 1990. Later in an interview with the New York Times Tom said, “If I was ever going to become a good designer, I had to leave America. My own culture was inhibiting me.” In 1990 Ford was hired by Gucci and quickly made his mark—within a year he was designing menswear and shoes. In 1994 he was promoted to creative director and became responsible for everything from the designs to the fragrances, advertising, brand image and store interiors. Ford helped revolutionize the fashion
industry with his designs, which oozed sexual glamour and personified the sexualized culture of the nineties, influenced by his carefree days spent at Studio 54. His signature pieces—silk, unbuttoned blouses, hipsters, skinny tailoring, animal print and patent knee-high boots, all set out to emphasize the figure, rather than hide it. His controversial advertisements gained him plenty of column inches in the press, but didn’t stop him winning design awards, including the Womenswear Designer of the Year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and Menswear Designer of the Year from the CFDA in 2008. Ford spent a decade as Gucci’s creative director,
before leaving the company in 2004. Despite repeatedly saying he would never release a brand with his name, he launched the Tom Ford label in 2005, producing fragrances and eyewear. In 2007, he launched his luxurious menswear line, produced by Italian fashion house Zegna, and opened his first Tom Ford boutique in New York. There are now 21 Tom Ford stores all over the world, including Tokyo, Dubai, Beverly Hills and Milan. His latest flagship store was opened in February earlier this year in Los Angeles. In 2005, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to
release a film by co-writing and directing an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel, A Single Man, about a gay English professor living
TPC LIFE & LEISURE
Mr. Ford (second from left) with the cast of A Single Man.
in Los Angeles grieving over the death of his boyfriend. The glowing reviews proved that Ford is just as talented at film direction as he is at designing. He recently said, “The movie [A Single Man] was my catharsis. That was my homo-angst movie. Now I’m shooting another. I’m writing the script—a comedy. I’m in
the mood to have fun and smile.” In 2009, Ford began designing his spring 2011
Phil
Mickelson often wears custom made
Tom Ford clothes on the course.
womenswear collection. He has now moved on from designing clothes that exude sexiness, instead his womenswear pieces are chic, sensual and timeless with his signature silk blouses, 70s style flared pantsuits, exquisite sequin, bead and feather dresses and soft trenches. Ford hopes that the pieces will be treasured by his customers for years to come, saying, “It’s about individuality. Real clothes, real women. For a fashionable woman aged 25 to 75... I want this to be somewhere a woman knows she can go when she wants a great jacket—not a fake expensive jacket, something that has intrinsic value. I don’t think fashion has to change every five minutes. I’d like these to be clothes you can wear for a long time—10, 20 years; pass on to your daughter. Why buy vintage when you can open your own closet!” His second womenswear collection for autumn 2011 has again been deemed a highlight on this year’s fashion calendar. Now one of the most powerful people in fashion, one thing is certain—Ford will continue to do things his own way. He said recently, “What I want is the freedom to say, I really like fashion and I’m going to come back my way and never have some corporate person say, ‘But you can’t do it that way.’ My goal is to be like Armani and Chanel.” ■
© PETER BROOKER/REX FEATURES; OLYCOM SPA/REX FEATURES; ROB CARR/AP/PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES
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