He is the last word in male (and female) fashion, and is credited with transforming Gucci from an ailing fashion house to a gobal couture superpower. But with the release of his film, 'A Single Man', is Tom Ford spreading himself too thin?
FOR THOSE OF US covering the fashion beat in the 1990s, one of the highlights of our twice-yearly visits to Milan was the show staged by Gucci.
Held in a cavernous space on the city’s outskirts, this event consistently seemed to advance the same enticing thesis: clothes were worn only in the expectation that they would soon be ripped off in a frenzy of sexual excitement. Hung on beautiful, bronzed, burnished models of both genders, Gucci clothes clung to those parts of the body that were not candidly exposed through strategically placed slashes and openings. With its sophisticated eroticism, Gucci made the likes of Armani and Prada look maidenly, and Versace merely vulgar.
Then in his mid-30s, Tom Ford, the man behind the label, was remarkable for two reasons: he was not Italian; and he had never studied fashion design (although it has to be pointed out that as a style-fixated man, he had a head start). Ford was born and raised in Texas but at the age of 17 he moved to New York, first studying art history before he switched to architecture.
However, extracurricular activities took up a fair amount of his time. With aspirations to be an actor, he appeared in a number of TV ads and also conducted a busy social life, at least some of it at Studio 54. Opened in 1977 and the most famous nightclub of its era, thanks to being the favourite haunt of such luminaries as Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli and Bianca Jagger, Studio 54 left an indelible impression on the young Tom Ford. Indeed, it’s fair to say his fashion sensibility has forever after borne the stamp of that period. As the New York Times’s Guy Trebay wryly noted last year, even now Ford’s vision of menswear fuses “the debonair cut of a Savile Row suit with the swagger of a star from 1970s pornography”.
The influence of another habitué of the same club can also be seen in Ford’s work, especially during his time with Gucci. In the 1970s, Roy “Halston” Frowick was probably the most famous designer in the US and his jersey dresses were unashamedly reincarnated by Ford some 20 years later. But the younger man’s success in Milan had not been won without effort. After leaving college, he worked for a number of New York-based fashion companies before moving to Italy in 1990 as chief women’s ready-to-wear designer for Gucci. At the time, the label, mired in family feuds and devalued by too many licensing agreements, was generally regarded as a spent force. And until 1994, when he was promoted to the position of creative director, Ford worked behind the scenes. Once in overall control – and he was notorious for supervising every detail of operations – Ford quickly put his stamp on the business, working closely with the likes of photographer Mario Testino and stylist Carine Roitfeld (now editor of French Vogue).
Nothing provides clearer evidence of his success than the financial bottom line: between 1995 and 1996, sales at Gucci rose by 90 per cent. By the close of the decade, a company that had been near-bankrupt when he joined it was valued at some $4.3 (€2.9) billion.
Although Gucci continued to be hugely popular, early in the new millennium it was possible to sense Ford’s interest was waning, and that he needed fresh challenges. After the business acquired Yves Saint Laurent, he also became creative director of that label. However, in 2004 he left Gucci, following a dispute over creative control of the group. By that time, Ford was deemed valuable property in his own right; over the course of the previous decade he had grown almost as well-known as the company he headed.
Never averse to personal publicity, he was much profiled and photographed, usually with his shirt open towards the navel; even today, Ford seems not to have grasped the function of the buttons down the front of a shirt.
But despite the urbanity of his public persona, on occasion he can be gauche. In January 2002, for example, he announced that the now-embattled president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was the chicest man on the planet. One wonders how that remark went down with the Taliban.
Nevertheless, it was not difficult to find backers for a venture establishing a new label under his own name. For the past five years this has been his principle occupation: creating Tom Ford, the global brand. In the fashion arena, his focus has primarily been on menswear aimed at not so much the upper as the top echelons of the market, with impeccably made suiting. His first Tom Ford store opened on New York’s Madison Avenue in April 2007 and a year later he ventured outside the US with an outlet in Zurich. He has also worked in eyewear, cosmetics and accessories for both men and women.
In the current lean economic climate, it’s difficult to assess how well the Tom Ford concept, with its emphasis on high-cost luxury, will perform, not least because his brand is not yet as widely recognised as he might like. Fashion cognoscenti know the name Tom Ford and what it represents, but the same is not necessarily true of the average consumer. Of course, it could be argued that average consumers are not his intended market but even those with an elementary grasp of the fashion world will know that selling the notion of exclusivity to a broad demographic is where the greatest money can be made. And then there is the question of whether fashion still holds enough of his attention to ensure he is monitoring the performance of his clothing and perfume lines as closely as he once did those at Gucci.
After leaving that company, Ford expressed keen interest in Hollywood. No longer wanting to be an actor, he moved to the other side of the camera and last week, on September 11th, his directorial debut, the feature film A Single Man, from Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same name, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, was shown at the Venice Film Festival. One of Gucci’s problems prior to Ford’s arrival at the company was that it had spread itself too wide and too thin; he needs to be careful his own brand doesn’t come to face the same predicament.
A selection of Tom Ford clothing and accessories is available from the newly expanded menswear department at Brown Thomas in Dublin. His fragrances, suitable for men and women, are also available and our personal favourite is Italian Cypress – people have stopped in the street and asked us what perfume we’re wearing