A PRESTIGE HONG KONG EXCLUSIVE
THE MAN IN FULL - TOM FORD
by Jessica Michault and Stephen Short

While we wait, the designer’s faithful assistant, Whitney, keeps us company. Heavily pregnant with her first child, she’s wearing high heels and a form-fitting knit Azzedine Alaïa dress that looks even better – dare we say sexier? – pulled tight over her taut belly.

When Ford is ready for us, we’re guided up another flight of stairs to his private office. The 46-year-old designer greets us at the door and ushers us in with a smile. The room is suffused with light from a wall full of windows, and the intoxicating aroma of Ford’s new men’s fragrance, Extreme, permeates the air. An oversized Macassar ebony table dominates the long room, at the far end of which is Ford’s large desk. On a side table, propped against a wall, are black-and-white photos of his partner of 21 years, Richard Buckley, and Ford’s close friend Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue. Halfway obscured behind them is a framed photo of Ford’s notorious 2002 ad for M7, a perfume he launched while running YSL, featuring a full frontal nude male.

Dressed in an impeccably cut, grey three-piece suit, Ford motions for us to sit in two chairs next to him, orders up drinks (his is a Diet Coke), leans back in his chair, looks us straight in the eyes and smiles – ready for his first question.

Congratulations on being nominated for a Council of Fashion Designers of America Award.
Thank you. I’ve won it before but not for my own brand, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Do you really care about such awards?
Of course they matter. It’s nice to know that what you’re doing other people like. Sales are the ultimate recognition of whether what you do is the right thing, and our sales are strong.

Karl Lagerfeld’s a big fan of yours. He told Prestige Hong Kong that you designed his favourite coat, a “unique piece.” What do you think of that compliment and of him?
I love it and I love Karl. In fact, I have a lot of great things to say about Karl. In the mid-’90s, when I started at Gucci as creative director and we turned it around, a lot of people hyped that as being a new formula. Then Marc Jacobs went to Vuitton. But Karl was the original. Karl was the first person to go to an older company and revitalise it; that’s what he did at Chanel. I have tremendous admiration for Karl. Once I started working with Gucci, I met Karl and we became friends. We see each other for dinner when I’m in Paris. He’s also a Virgo, so we’re kindred spirits in terms of the way our brains and personalities work together. I think he’s an amazing guy. When you look at other designers his age, and then you look at what Karl’s doing, Karl is what you want to be. He’s so alive and so quick-witted and so smart, and so completely contemporary and current. So I love that about him. Karl will never retire, I don’t think. He’ll just keep going until the end. He’s just an amazing person.

Lagerfeld says he does everything his way and takes no advice. What about you?
Well, when my staff says to me, “Here’s plan A and this is plan B,” I always say, “There is no plan B. We have to figure out how to work plan A. And if you hit a wall you have to go around the wall, or dig under the wall, but you just don’t stop.” I’m very much that way when I‘m determined and I think something’s right. I figure out a way to make it happen. So sometimes you pound your head into the wall, against the wall, around the wall, under the wall and you still don’t succeed, but you must make sure you’ve tried everything when you think it’s right.

This is a very intimate set of photographs that your photographer Jeff Burton created for us. It’s so Tom Ford, don’t you think?
Yes, these are some of my favourite pictures. I love them because Jeff is someone who I’m very comfortable with. I actually don’t like having pictures taken of myself.

You’re kidding. I thought you’d be the opposite.
No! No one ever believes that, but I hate it. I really do, I hate it. So I only show the world one side of my face. I don’t give a lot in pictures because I hate it. I think these pictures capture something that not all photos do because we were so relaxed together.

You’re a great-looking guy. Which guys in the past or the present would you like to dress?
I wouldn’t mind dressing Barack Obama. I think he’s a great-looking guy but I think his suits don’t fit him very well. I think he’s a terrific potential presidential candidate and I’m very excited as a Democrat, so Hillary or Obama, I like both options. So, I wouldn’t mind dressing Obama. I wouldn’t say he’s badly dressed, but he could sharpen up his look a little better.