Tom Ford

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Nothing stays the same, but Ford has his sexy extrovert signatures, and he’s sticking with them—all the way down to the cheeky lace underthings. Fifty years from now, maybe our son, Jack, will look back and say, “ Wow, my dad really dressed everybody. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.

I think fashion moves in a chronological way with each season as a reaction to the season before and a reaction to where you are as a designer at that moment.Every major celebrity has worn Tom Ford: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Jay Z, Madonna, Drake, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Beckham, Serena Williams, Daniel Craig, Naomi Campbell, the Jenners and Hadids, Janet Jackson, Colin Firth, Kate Moss, Michelle Obama, ad infinitum. Ford brought a hard-edged style synonymous with 21st century glamour to his clothes, and Hollywood sat up and took note.

And being able to express that was the most fun I’ve ever had and the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. When the daywear section concluded, a soundtrack of upbeat ’80s hits was swapped out for Freddie Mercury singing “Time Waits for No One. In the past decade, he transformed Gucci from a moribund accessories label into one of the sexiest fashion brands in the world.

His designs have increased sales at Gucci tenfold and have helped build the Gucci brand into the luxury goods conglomerate that it is today. As I look back over this book and over the last 45 years of my career in fashion, I realize that the fashion imagery of our world has become increasingly celebrity-driven.

People interviewing me at the time said, “oh we thought that it was a joke,” and, you know, that you’d never make a movie. Looking back at it, why it was a great show, why the room worked, the vibe worked… You couldn’t walk away from it saying, ‘Tom Ford believes in this,’ because at the time I wanted to make clothes for all different kinds of individual women.At the time I said and I still believe it, if Jack [Ford’s son], when he grows up and wants to know anything about me at age 48, all he has to do is watch that movie and everything in it. Tonight’s collection looked back on his different chapters, the sheer tees and black satin bra tops evoking a Gucci spring 2001 show, the deconstructed chiffon dresses reminiscent of a YSL outing for spring 2002. A hot pink zoot suit was accompanied by a necktie that looked wider and shorter than recent examples. I spoke to Ford about what Karl Lagerfeld taught him, how it feels being name-checked in a Jay Z song, and much more.