He's a fashion designer, a filmmaker, a perfumer, a perfectionst - this much we know. But who's this singular man? What makes him tick?
Tom Ford is a conundrum: On the outside, he’s controlled to the point of obsessive-compulsive behaviour (witness the shiny red pencils sharpened to the exact same length in a glass vase on his desk, even though he refuses to use paper); on the inside, he’s a tangle of emotions— someone who feels things in a deep and, at times, disturbing way. (“I’ve never talked about death quite so much in an interview.”) He’s one of the most forward-thinking designers of our time. Wearing the pieces Tom Ford creates today makes you a woman of tomorrow, yet the sexy glamour of Tom Ford is so very traditional. He is hailed as the most accurate predictor of mass-market commercial tastes in fashion history (miles ahead of his time when he worked at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent), yet his clothes are also the byword for bespoke individuality, catering to the luxurious desires of a small group of spirited women. He is responsible for some of the most provocative and controversial fashion imagery of the past 20 years (remember the model with Gucci’s logo shaved into her pubic hair?), yet it is odd that a man who is so in love with the visual has no personal pictures. “I don’t take them or allow photos to be taken,” he tells me. “I prefer memories or beautiful, retouched images.”
So it’s very confusing to interview him—not just because of all the opposites he represents, which sometimes make you question what’s real and what’s not, but also because he is so damned charming. Surely the most heterosexual homosexual in the world? No two ways about it: He is a sex god. And he’s gone straight to the top of my fantasy dinner-party guest list: I’m going to sit him between Patti Smith and Lee Miller (because he is so well read) and opposite Marilyn Monroe (because he’s a big fan of red lipstick).
“Hair, makeup—a lot of makeup—and shoes,” says Ford firmly when I ask him the most important thing about a woman’s appearance. “Whatever else you’ve got on is probably fine.” He says that he is “brutal” when he first analyzes a woman’s appearance. “But I am brutal with men too,” he adds. “I start at the top: hairline,forehead, eyebrows, eye colour, lips, head, head too big for body or too small for body, breasts, waist.... It is a sickness, an affliction. I can’t escape myself.”
More on Tom Ford's compulsions and his strive for perfection on the next page...
