Tom Ford

Product Information

Well, yes, that would be one of them. So was there a moment of epiphany when you pivoted on that aspect of your life? My grandmother wore Tom Ford. She was both incredibly traditional and deeply transgressive of so many long-standing conventions of how a woman should be. (She went to law school in the 1940s and later drove a 1969 Jaguar E-Type and for many decades, a 1971 SL—not your typical grandma.) You know a Tom Ford woman when you see one.

The special collection of photographs comes just in time for the holidays, as the perfect gift for any synonymous fashion lover and Ford fan." CRFASHIONBOOK.COM

I think my taste has gone from a more literal sexuality to more of a sensuality. But honestly, you get to give the world your taste once, and I did that in the ’90s. My taste hasn’t changed. Yes, times have changed, so my taste has evolved. Things change a little bit, meaning a silhouette will change, a shoulder will change, a skirt length will change, a shoe heel will change. And the way people dress has changed, obviously. I think people dress more today in items than they did in a head-to-toe look in the ’90s or early 2000s. By the way, that is not so different from what resonates in fashion. You have to be true to yourself. You can’t fake it. You can’t make something because you think it was the right thing to make at a certain time and not really believe in it. Then, it doesn’t resonate with the customer or with the person looking at it. Laughs.] Oh, I don’t know that it’s an honor. It’s fascinating, because I’ve been doing interviews this morning, and you live in London, I believe, and you write for a U.S. publication, and I just did one in New York, but it’s a Berlin publication. I miss London. I’m jealous of you being there. I mean, I love Los Angeles and it’s a beautiful, sunny day, but I miss so much the people and the culture. They’re just very different in L.A. It certainly is. I’m from Hawaii originally, so I’m moving farther and farther to colder and darker places. But I do like it here. Wow. So, of course, Book 2 investigates your career and life as a director. How did that come about? I’ve worked on it during COVID. The way I work on everything is somewhat intuitive. I literally had thousands and thousands of images, and I had everyone in my office print them up, so I had boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures, because while I look at things online—I live online like a lot of us do—photographs, for some reason, I need to see printed out. I just went through them. I did it very fast. Anything that grabbed my eye, I would throw into the pile that made it in.

I don’t sleep. I enjoy working. I don’t actually know what I would do without working. It fuels everything. I think I’m often the best when I’m working on multiple things at the same time because I’m excited about one thing that I’m doing and that spills over onto everything else because I’m happy. That excitement fuels over and I feel more creative, but it is weird because it also makes you realize how fast it all goes. I do wish I had more time to sit at a cafe and have an omelet mixte and a Coca Light you know, so it’ll be interesting to see what I do now. But honestly I’m seeing it through the lens of having just lost Richard, and now it takes on a different meaning. But I think it’s very important, whatever story you tell—or at least it is for me—that you’re able to make it personal. Otherwise, why are you telling the story? It has to be something that speaks to you. TOM FORD 002 reflects the designer’s taste and unapologetic sensual aesthetic and is a true collector’s item for connoisseurs of unabashed style, design, and of Tom Ford the man." —MR MAGAZINE Yeah, I guess I was pleasantly surprised at how much work I had done. How did I actually, you know, do menswear, womenswear, build stores all over the world, create a cosmetics business? You work and you work and you work. It made me feel good. I actually have built a brand. This was something I wanted to do and I did it and achieved it. It made me feel good. How have you managed to be so productive? The reason why I wanted to do that at the time was, yes, Gucci and Saint Laurent existed way before I went there, but in the case of Gucci, there really were not runway shows before I went. And there really were not complete collections. I say in the book that you get to give the world your taste once. And it’s true. I made my case at Gucci and then later at Saint Laurent. So I wanted to take that with me when I left and I wanted to put my name on it. What was your mindset in 2004 when you finished the book?

Alexei Hay I’d love to talk about your films. You mentioned that you have a cinematic project that you would be interested in bringing to life. I’m not sure if you can talk at all about what that might be. More broadly, I’m curious about the types of stories you are looking to tell. I’ve been vegan for about four years, but lately I’ve been eating a little bit of fish every now and then. And yeah I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. I drink caffeine, I play tennis, I take care of my son. And it’s a very different life; it sounds very dull, but I don’t know. I have no desire to have a drink whatsoever. It’s very interesting. Absolutely none. So I don’t miss any of that. The vegan thing came because I watched a movie What the Health? and once a year I go to this place where I fast for five to seven days and I was doing that and watched that film and somehow thought, you know, I don’t need to eat meat anymore so I stopped. Wow. So, of course, Book 2 investigates your career and life as a director. How did that come about?