Tom Ford:
Out of fashion

Arena magazine, December 2004

After transforming Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent — and radically sexing up fashion in the process — designer Tom Ford has plunged his manicured fingers into several new pies. He talks exclusively to Arena about moving into film production, his half-hour-long driveway and "women in fishnets with great tits"

When Tom Ford became head designer of Gucci in 1994, he injected the brand, and the decade, with sex, transforming an ancient dealer of fusty luggage into a cultural megaforce. He planted flesh-revealing dresses, fishnets, and impractically high stiletto heels into the consciousness of ordinary women. For men, he single-handedly revived the look and mindset of the satin-sheeted playboy. 

Ford's influence has transcended clothes. He washed away the stomach-turning styles of the '80s with a call toward everything slim, slick, and preferably black; even the brand's excesses were sleek. Ford looked a bit like a rock star, lived like a rock star's money-skimming manager, and he made the world a slightly safer place for men to rock a slightly compromised hairline. In just a few years, Ford took Gucci from zero profits to billions; in 2000 he was made creative director and in 2002 was put in charge of Yves Saint Laurent, where he helpfully delineated his customers: "The Yves Saint Laurent woman might tie her boyfriend up and drip hot wax on him before they have sex. The Gucci woman is just going to have sex." 

Last April, Ford and CEO Domenico De Sole left Gucci Group after a dispute over creative control with its French owner. Now Ford is an aspiring film director based in Los Angeles, where he's edited a book collecting his work (called, intuitively, Tom Ford) and set up a production company. He's also writing a screenplay, hanging out with celebrity friends like Uma Thurman and telling Arena about his most extravagant habits, the most beautiful woman in the world and why his favorite thing to wear is nothing. Even without the benefit of a runway, he's still setting the bar for future louche aspirationalists everywhere. 

Tom Ford, what's your typical day like? 

I always think things are going to take less time than they do, and I get involved in several things at once. I must thrive on it because it's a kind of sickness with me. Immediately after leaving Gucci I started working on this book; thought I could whip it out in two months and it's taken almost four. I couldn't take time off until I knew what my future was, so in May I jumped on a plane, opened an L.A. office and hired assistants. Now I'm working with people at [legendary Hollywood agency] CAA, and reading every spec script that's around, digging through my library for stuff I've always loved, working on a screenplay I'm doing with a writer. I've bought rights to a book that's been around for a while and I'm trying to get the rights for something that hasn't been made into a film since the '30s, which I want to re-adapt as a contemporary piece. 

And I'm contemplating a return, in parts, to the fashion world, although in a different way. I'm working on setting up a design company which will be based in London, and I'm figuring out the tax issues, business plan and structure. That's kind of my day. More than you bargained for, huh? 

Slightly. What can you tell us about the movies and your re-entry into fashion? 

I can't say too much about those movies. Everything has to be very secretive here. And I'm not ready to say, "I'm going to be designing this and it's going to be sold in these places." I know all those things; I'm just not ready to talk about them in detail yet. I can say one thing to you now: I never said I would start my own fashion company. I may still not, but I'm leaning towards that. At the moment, it wouldn't be clothes. In fact, it would most probably be everything but clothes. I'm just really enjoying not participating in the whole fashion show thing. 

How is your life different from when you were creative director of Gucci Group? 

It's less of a grind. I'm so used to being scheduled. I could always tell you what I was doing a year in advance on a particular day at a particular time. With all of my projects, it was the only way I could work. I really need to start learning not to do that. 

What's the biggest misconception about you? 

The first thing people always say is, "I understand you're a control freak." I think that's funny, because if you're a designer or you're creating something, and you're not doing it yourself or directing people to do it the way you want it, you're not doing your job. Being a designer is an egotistical thing. You're telling people all over the world, '“This is what I want, this is what I think, this is how he should look, this is how she should look." 

Your suit jacket/jeans/sharp shoes combo has crossed over to the masses, so what's the new fashion uniform? 

I like a jacket, a tie. It doesn't mean it needs to be boring. The fabrics can be beautiful. I'm wearing a velvet jacket right now, as I always do. You've got to make yourself glamorous. I love Andre 3000 [from Outkast]. He really dresses. I'm sure after a few years of dressing up, we'll want to throw it all away and wear ripped-up jeans and dirty T-shirts again, but right now I'm into formal, traditional clothes. 

Are there any celebrities you haven't dressed that you'd like to? 

You know, I hate dressing celebrities. It was my least favorite part of the job. I have a lot of celebrity friends and I love them, but I don't want to dress them. As a creative person. it's not nearly as much fun as dressing a hypothetical broad range of people. 

How much time and effort do you spend on personal grooming? 

An enormous amount. I'm not young out here; I'm 43. I don't think there's any natural beauty after 35, male or female. Beautiful people are born with a gift. I think it's wrong not to maintain that. If you're not beautiful, you can maintain a kind of beauty through confidence and style and feeling good about yourself. 

Are you worried about middle age?
I'm not. I had a really serious midlife crisis when I turned 40. It wasn't that I was unhappy with what I had achieved in life, but it really disturbed me that 40 years of my life had gone by, and even if I was really lucky, I might only have another 40. Was I using it the right way?

How much did that crisis figure into the events that led to you leaving Gucci? 

It didn't really, because I didn't want to leave. But I also knew it was the best thing in the world for me. It was like "Been there, done that." It was wonderful, but I wasn't all that challenged by what I was doing. If I'd stayed, I'd probably have spent the last 20 years trying to stay in the same spot. trying not to slip up. 

What would we be most surprised to find in your wardrobe? 

People are always shocked when they go hiking with me and I'm wearing hiking boots, or they go running with me and I'm wearing running shoes.

What do you wear around the house? 

Usually, I'm naked. I'm serious! I hate clothes. Usually, if no one's there, I just don't wear anything. If I go hiking in the morning and I'm just at home working, I don't change clothes all day. Sometimes I go two or three days without taking a shower. And I love that. 

We read that Valentino has his bed linen ironed twice: once out of the laundry and once when it's on the bed. Can you match that? 

I hate to tell you, but people do that at my house too. And everyone who has a certain amount of money and can afford it has that done. If you're in our business and you get used to those tricks of the trade, you expect your bed to look like a photoshoot. 

I also have an amazing English butler — he took my shoes and polished all the toe caps with beeswax and a blowtorch. And after that, it only takes him 15 minutes to repolish them. But the first time it's this really labor-intensive thing. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing, and then I looked down at my shoes with those shiny toecaps and became completely addicted to it. These are traditional things that have disappeared from our lives, starting with polyester sheets that you take out of the dryer.

At what age did you realize that you had a future in fashion? 

I didn't really think of it as a career until my second year of college in New York. I was studying architecture, and I was in Russia on a two-week vacation. I was so depressed under the weight of architecture and my professors, and it was all so serious, and I realized I had been working fashion into my projects for years and I was more excited to get Vogue each month than the latest architecture magazine. 

What do you consider the biggest moment in your fashion career? 

My favorite of the earlier collections was when I made the white dresses with the cutouts. I really felt I had proven myself. 

Should the fashionable man believe in monogamy? 

I think that monogamy is artificial. I do not think it's something that comes naturally to us. Everyone has to find their own morality. Whatever works for someone and doesn't hurt someone else is what that person should practice. The relationship I've been in for 18 years — I don't even want to get into this because he's going to read this and I'm going to be in so much shit! If this were later in the day and I'd had a few drinks I'd answer that. 

Do you feel as if you've created something of enduring worth?

If I haven't, I intend to before I'm finished, which is one reason I want to make films. They have greater longevity and impact on people's opinions and moral views than clothes. I'm not saying I'm not proud of what I've done, but fashion can only affect the world so much. 

What is your most extravagant habit? 

Probably my ranch. It's pretty extravagant and needs a lot of money thrown at it to keep it going. It has 50 staff, the driveway is half-an-hour long; it has cattle, an orchard and a film set. I'm going there this weekend, actually. 

What else do you think you could have done other than fashion? 

Well, what I'm going to try now, being a film director. I like to build. I'd be a good architect, interior designer, film director... 

Who would you say is the most beautiful woman in the world? 

Physically, I would probably have to say Angelina Jolie. Physically. Sometimes the things she says in public detract from her physical beauty. I think Uma Thurman is pretty beautiful. I'm lucky to know Uma pretty well, and I have to say her personality is equally beautiful.

Did you always plan to get out at the top, or after a decade, did you feel that you were becoming establishment? 

Yeah, I was going to get out anyway had things not happened. I was going to move myself into a management position in the company and stop designing. That's why I brought in Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. I'd always wanted to make movies, so I think that even if I had stayed, in five or years I would have stopped and said, "I'm going to go make a movie now.”

As a gay man, do you realize how much you've helped straight men by making the playboy cool again and getting women to wear fishnets and heels?

No, because I'm an odd gay man, which causes me some problems actually. Almost all of my friends are straight. You'll think I'm crazy, but straight men get crushes on me. They're not sexual crushes, but for a lot of straight men, I'm maybe one of the few gay men that they know or can relate to. I'm kind of a guy's guy, and I have a whole group of friends who are guys. The point is, I don't think about straight and gay, because as a gay man, I like to see women in fishnets with great tits and good legs and looking beautiful and chic. I think I'm making the world a better place for me.

Tom Ford on... turning 9/11 into a dress, critics and the future 

Workplace relations 

"Only hire people you want to have dinner with. Anytime I've hired somebody who I didn't want to have dinner with, it's been a disaster." 

Imitation 

"I don't know if I've ever invented anything. But that, too, is part of our time." 

Fashion's social responsibility 

"A fashion designer's job is to take a feeling that's in the air and turn it into something tangible that people can actually buy. Take September 11: what does that turn into as a dress? What does that turn into as a shoe?" 

His critics 

"Not a real designer? That just drives me crazy. Okay, I didn't pose around in a white lab coat like Yves did. But I've been working in this business for 20 years now. I know how to cut a damn dress." 

Adolescence 

"I was always confident. It's just that I just wasn't confident with a football. Give me a pair of knitting needles and I was confident. I could sew a nice pair of drapes by the time I was 11 or 12." 

Sexploitation 

"I don't set out to make sexy clothes. I take a girl, I stand her there and fit a dress." 

The future 

"Luxury is the future for the next 25 years—rich people building fake environments so they can pretend life is a certain way. This is the future, building yourself into these artificial worlds."