Tom Ford is 47 today - Happy Birthday!  I cannot think of another man who is as iconic in contemporary men’s fashion as Tom Ford.  Right now no-one is making better clothes for adult men of style.

History

Tom Ford was born on August 27^th I961 in Austin, Texas.  At 17 he enrolled at New York University and studied art history.  He left after a year to study architecture at the Parsons School of Design.  When he left he worked first for Cathy Hardwick, an American sportwear brand and then in 1988 he joined Perry Ellis.  At that time Ellis was a premier brand and had a distinctive menswear line.  At a time when menswear was becoming gimmicky, Ellis had seen that menswear classics could be updated for the modern age and was producing handsome manly menswear.  It is interesting to speculate on the effect this had on Tom Ford.

Ford left Perry Ellis after two years and moved to Europe.  This was the key move of his career, he felt that if he were ever to become a great designer he had to leave America.  He felt that his own culture was inhibiting him and that style was looked down on America.  Interestingly he saw the difference between American and European luxury goods as being the craft tradition of European fashion, hand-tailoring, family firms and traditions.  He believed that Europeans had and respected style.  

His move to Europe in 1990 coincided with Gucci offering him the position of women’s ready-to-wear designer.  The truth was that no-one wanted the job.  Gucci had been badly mismanaged since its heyday in the seventies and in 1990 was a byword for overpriced tat.  Gucci had lost its reputation as a quality brand and was virtually bankrupt. 

Gucci

It was here that Tom Ford showed his true genius.  High fashion was falling over itself to create adolescent fashion, down-market brands like Tommy Hilfiger were dominating the market and other brands were falling over themselves to emulate them.  Tom Ford realized that America and Europe were becoming wealthier and that there were people who wanted clothes that were designed and made well, were attractive and wearable.  Ford’s designs were sexy and easy to wear and he referenced European high fashion of previous eras.  The Tom Ford woman was sexy and desirable and the clothes were a huge hit. 

The Ford Gucci man’s look was really important.  At that time (as now) many menswear designers were fixated on clothes for younger men, adolescent and boyish.  Tom Ford took the sexy menswear of the seventies and streamlined it.  His suits were long, tight over the hips, broad at the shoulders and very manly.  Suits were made of silky wools and mohairs, in sophisticated colours.  He presented adult contrasts, the dark suit with the white shirt, the light suit with the dark shirt.  The Ford look was confident, competent and predatory.  Adult, sexy men of the world.                        

Ford was his own model.  A good-looking man wearing his own clothes, he was the best advertisement for his own brand.  There must be a thousand pictures of him wearing a black suit with a white shirt unbuttoned to the chest.  He looks stylish in every one of them.  Though he is gay, he is truly stylish masculine man.   

And the punchline is that Ford is a superb businessman.  When he joined Gucci it was worth very little.  When he left it was worth more than 4 Billion dollars. 

Tom Ford now

So now he is even more interesting.  Starting in 2006, his Tom Ford menswear line is making a global impact.  As a brand Tom Ford is on the leading edge.  He saw, as some leading style analysts have seen, that the luxury brands were losing their status, as they market themselves across bigger and bigger territories.  His own menswear is exclusive, in his own words “aimed at the men who want the very best”.

Tom Ford is an admirer of Savile Row, the bespoke experience and the exclusivity of Savile Row clothes.  His menswear is exclusive, with the additional elements of being fun and a little more fashionable.  His clothes are manly, adult and beautifully made.  The suits are cut slim, the jackets have an open chest ( a la Savile Row) with wide lapels.  Like Savile Row suits they flatter men. 

For me his suits a are little eighties, beautifully proportioned and powerful-looking.  Only Tom Ford could bring back the double-breasted suit and make it look good.  Manly and powerful but with fine subtle tailoring rather than eighties excess.  Ford has talked about how fashion brands produce clothes for the very young and how they exclude older men with style and taste.  He is producing clothes for those adult worldly men.  The provocative advertising for his menswear tells us that clothes are all about good taste, sex and power, definitely not for kids.

Tom Ford is a great designer of original style.   Happy Birthday Tom Ford!  

More information:

www.tomford.com