"One of the nail colors was first called Bitter Chocolate, and it is such a dark, dramatic shade that I changed it to Bitter Bitch. My favorite is Lost Cherry [a lip color]. If you wear it, and you haven’t, then you just might."
Tina Brown and Tom Ford: The Full Interview from The Daily Beast Video on Vimeo.
"In anticipation of Carine Roitfeld‘s new book, Irreverent, the Times interviewed the former French Vogue editor for the Sunday Magazine. And we all know Carine gives a good interview. This one is brief, but she speaks frankly about Tom Ford (there’s a cute thank you letter from him in the book), that French Vogue spread that caused a media shitstorm (and her firing from the glossy?), why she named the book Irreverent and more. Here are the best bits.
On going on a romantic date with Tom Ford:
“O.K., Tom, unfortunately for the woman, is gay. But he is very not so gay. Even the way he touches a woman, the way he puts his hand on your back or the way he opens the car for you, he’s a gentleman. You’re dying that he likes everything you’re wearing, everything you’re doing, because his taste is very important to you. You want to seduce him all the time.”
On the December 2010 Issue of French Vogue (you know, the one with 10-year-old Thylane Blondeau posing seductively with bunnies in an evening gown):
“A lot of people say I was fired because of this issue, because of the little girls dressed in mom clothes…It was very, very controversial. Old couples, kids, surgery. But it was not done on purpose because I was leaving. It was done before that, you know.”
On whether she should apologize for that or for doing all those bondage editorials:
“The reason I call my book “Irreverent” is because there were a lot of pictures that were very irreverent. Maybe I could call my book “Forgiving” because maybe I made a lot of errors too.”
On American style:
“When I see a woman in the street, sometimes I think, Oh, it’s a bit too comfortable the way she is dressing, you know? And not in a nice way.”
On her distaste for certain clothing based on smell and sound:
“I like fur, but there’s a sort of smell on it that now I don’t like. But I can’t say I will never wear fur again because I will lie. Maybe tomorrow I’m going to see a beautiful mink coat, and I’ll really want it, even if there is some smell in it. I will put perfume on. Mules I’m sure I will never wear. I hate the noise when someone walks with mules. Clomp, clomp, clomp. I think it’s very not chic.” - Fashionista.com
1. Tom Ford was born an adult.
I was born fifty. When I was five years old, I wanted to be fifty. I knew exactly what I was going to look like, exactly what I was going to be doing. Although when I was five, I had envisioned that I was going to have very distinguished gray at my temples, which I have decided to avoid. I always wanted to be fifty. I never felt like a little kid. I wanted to be at my parents’ cocktail parties. I wanted to live in a glamorous apartment—I thought in New York, but now I’d rather not live in New York.
2. Tom Ford will tell you when you look bad.
Some women who have a lot of style or think that they have a lot of style . . . sometimes I’m a little too bold in that way. I will just grab on to their collar, turn it up, push this there and pull that there, and say, “This will be great, but you need to take four inches off your hair.” They look at me like, “Who are you?” I push that a little too far.
3. Tom Ford has the solution to aging well–for men.
An eyelift on a man usually makes the eyes look extremely feminine. It’s something to avoid if you’re a man. The solution is a really beautifully tailored Tom Ford jacket. No one will be looking at your bad eyelift.
4. Tom Ford does not gain weight.
But if one does care about one’s looks, key number one is stay thin. I’m the same weight now that I was when I was thirty-three years old. I weigh myself every day. If I gain more than three pounds, I eat vegetables for two or three days until I get back down to my weight.
5. Tom Ford was well-dressed, even as a child.
I wore a little suit and carried a briefcase in the third grade. I was completely different.
6. Tom Ford is a man of nuance.
Today with the Internet, there’s not a lot of mystery. There’s not a lot of mystery with sex or with anything, and there’s not a lot of nuance. Because no one has time for nuance. I am trying to bring that back a little bit. That comes back to a certain formality and a certain reserve. I don’t know if I’ll succeed at it, but nuance is something that I think about. No one takes time to contemplate words and the meaning of words. When you send a text, sometimes they’re not even words, just letters and abbreviations. But there was a time when you really chose your words carefully, and almost everything had some sort of double meaning, and when you sent flowers to someone, certain flowers meant something . . .
7. Tom Ford is a philosopher.
Well, I think that we are all compartmentalized. Today, everyone only knows what they do. If all of our communication with each other was cut off…I mean, I don’t know how to grow things. I don’t even know how to start a fire. I certainly don’t know how to create a cell phone or a computer. We’ve become compartmentalized. So all of us together, being linked by computers and telephones, are creating one giant computer, and our civilization is becoming like a giant brain…it will be very interesting to see the jumps in technology that start to happen because we’re now acting as a whole as opposed to acting as individuals.
8. Tom Ford is naturally fantastic.
I just get out of bed and look the same every day.
9. Tom Ford is allergic to cucumbers.
I’ve always been serious about makeup and cosmetics going back to when I was fourteen, and my mother had to take me to the emergency room because I was lying in the bathtub with cucumber slices on my eyes. She had to explain to the guys in the emergency room why her fourteen-year-old son had a giant infection in his eyes. I was allergic to cucumbers, but I didn’t know it until I put them on my eyes and laid in the bathtub. At fourteen, I already thought I had bags under my eyes.
10. Tom Ford books up almost a year in advance.
I actually do [know what I will be doing next year]. It’s really pathetic. I’m looking at my calendar right now. I am not booked up quite a year from now. But I am pretty booked up all the way through February 2012.
"Time Out Hong Kong finally put its very bizarre and extremely entertaining interview with Tom Ford online. While some quotes about his thoughts on parenthood made the rounds last week, we finally got to read the whole thing this morning and almost spit out our coffee at several points. (Like when he recounted the tale of a German journalist questioning whether the flowers in his room were fake or not, because Americans have a lot of fake things.)
The Hong Kong-based journalist attempted to ask Ford questions ranging from his new movie to beauty standards in Asia, and he was met with some strongly worded responses, to say the least. Here are some of the best excerpts:
On his new comedy:
When asked if he would discuss the new comedy he’s working on, Ford said, “I believe you should do something and then talk about it, which is why I didn’t talk about my women’s collection until it just appeared in New York….I don’t want to talk about it because I believe you’re also giving away energy when you talk about things.” He was then asked if he feels close to comedy, said he’s “surprisingly more humorous than people realize,” then refused to tell a joke.
On his world view:
“It may take 250 years, but we will be one race. The world, It will all blur together. So I think we’re at the last moments of separate ethnic races.”
On children and privacy:
He and his partner probably won’t have children, but if they did: “Maybe you’ll see it when it’s 18, but I will keep it out of the spotlight. I wouldn’t use it as a press tool, as some people I know have recently.”
-On Asian body types:
Ford got irritated during this part of the interview and accused the writer of asking “racist” questions (keep in mind, this is an Asian publication, and the writer was focusing on his use of Asian models and body types). “Honestly, growing up in America and Europe, I don’t think as racially as the questions you are asking.”
-On John Galliano:
“I know John, I like John a lot. Obviously he’s very troubled. I feel very sorry for him. Historically, Yves Saint Laurent had drug problems. A lot of different fashion designers had drug and alcohol problems. It’s a very tough, tough, tough business. You have to be very strong.”
-On body size and who his collection fits:
“…Americans are too fat. And in London they are starting to get fat, too. So I have to say that if we have to talk about race system and nationalism, I find it refreshing that everyone [who is] Chinese is slim.” He then went on to acknowledge, “But I do design for a specific person who appreciates… who’s probably thin, quite honestly. She takes care of herself…So no, you’re not gonna go in there and find elasticated waist bands and flip flops.”
Too bad. We’d love a Tom Ford-designer flip flop. At least we would have a chance of affording it."
"Tom Ford, arbiter of all things crave-worthy, is launching a full color cosmetics collection, available this September. It is a whopping 132-piece collection and also includes skin care.
Ford told WWD that he’d wanted to do a color collection since his days at Gucci, but that people were not “convinced that I had a voice in color until the lipsticks started selling out again and again.” (That would be his 12-piece Private Blend Lip Color Collection, now legendary.) He recounts a lifelong interest in beauty, which is not that shocking for someone so dedicated to aesthetic perfection. One of his first experiments with beauty resulted in a trip to the ER after he suffered an allergic reaction from putting cucumbers on his eyes, according to WWD.
Ford continues to work with the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. to produce this expanded line, so it’s going to be a powerhouse brand. Expect to see it in limited (read: very high end) numbers of stores at first; it will be at Tom Ford and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as some Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue stores. However, the lipsticks, which will be beefed up from 12 colors to 18, will be more widely available.
Expect to see a lot of color and strong pigment in the collection. Ford told WWD that he likes a strong eye and mouth for night, and the look is Studio 54 in 1978. There’s attention to detail, like the calligraphy tip brow pens that allow you to draw on individual brow hairs. “A nice thick brow is the key to a youthful look,” Ford said. And expect some raciness, like a lipgloss called Lost Cherry.
As if all this wasn’t enough, he’s also adding two fragrances to his multiple-FiFi-winning Private Blend collection: Santal Blush and Jasmin Rouge. The fragrances range in price from $195 to $475. The color collection will range from $30 to $250; lipsticks are $48.
The icing on the cake? Tom Ford himself stars with Lara Stone in the ads, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. “I’m not in the ads because I’m vain…the product sells better with me in the ads,” he told the paper. We think it’s going to sell just fine, regardless."
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