Tom Ford on “Fresh Air”

December 16, 2009 • 5:20 pm • POSTED BY David Burden

Tom Ford was interviewed earlier this week by Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air”. After years as a top fashion designer, Ford has directed and co-written his first film, “A Single Man,” based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. Ford is the former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, where he was known for as much for his collections as the provocative ad campaigns that helped revive both struggling houses. In 2004, he launched his own line of menswear, beauty, eyewear, and accessories, then introduced fragrances in 2006.

Whereas I am very familiar with (and a fan of) Ford’s work, as well as his image as a gay and straight style icon (he is always impeccably dressed, usually in a simple black suit, with a white pocket square, a white shirt unbuttoned down to his native Texas, and black cowboy boots; he looks like one of the most macho men on the planet), I had actually never heard him speak.  He is very soft spoken and articulate, belying his structured machismo, and I found it riveting as he was able to confidently yet delicately deconstruct and defend (on public radio) his most avant-garde work by explaining the intimate and fragile connections between time, fashion, branding and advertising.

On his now infamous Gucci “G” pubic hair ad:

“First of all in fashion as in life, the right thing at the right time is the right thing. The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing. I wouldn’t necessarily do that ad today because we’re in a different world and we’re in a different time. And it isn’t necessarily something that needs to be said culturally at this particular moment in time. However, at that moment in time, that was meant as a bit of a tongue in cheek take on where we were with branding in our culture. And, of course, you know, I was at Gucci and branding everything, everything had a G on it.

Louis Vuitton, everything had an LV on it. And we had come to a point in our culture, you know, globalization had really kicked in with the Internet in the early ’90s. And we were at a point where all of a sudden, everyone all over the world was consuming exactly the same thing at the same time. And branding, branding, branding, everything became a brand. And you know, there was nothing left to brand. So, the idea is that this young man is branding his girlfriend. And she is wearing a brand.”

On the speed and time sensitivity of fashion:

“I studied architecture at Parson’s and I finally realized that while I loved architecture and it was very useful to me as a tool to learn how to think, that it was little too serious for me at that moment in time. And that fashion – I was better suited for fashion. I also liked the speed of fashion. You know, fashion and film-making, to me, were two very, very different things in terms of satisfying a certain kind of creative need. And I hope to be able to make films and produce fashion for the rest of my life. But they’re very, very different. Fashion is very quick. It’s very disposable. It’s immediately – it tells you exactly where we are in our culture, especially women’s fashion.

If we’re having a glitzy over-the-top moment, fashion is very glitzy and over-the-top, you know, over-the-top. If we’re having a moment where things are, you know, we’re in a recession, fashion becomes quiet. So, in terms of popular culture, fashion and especially women’s fashion is incredibly interesting, aside from satisfying just a particular need to create and arrange things in a way that one sees as beautiful. And so, in a certain way, it’s fulfilling. In another way, it’s very fleeting because it doesn’t last very long. You know, a beautiful moment in fashion goes away very quickly.”

On his complete full frontal male nude ad for Yves Saint Laurent fragrance M7. (NSFW) 

“Well, why did I do it? Again, you know, I’m an equal opportunity objectifier…and Yves Saint Laurent posed nude for his first men’s fragrance. And it was groundbreaking at the time. So, I thought, all right, we’re launching a new Yves Saint Laurent men’s fragrance. What perfect way than to continue the tradition and vocabulary of the house of Yves Saint Laurent by, you know, publishing the first full frontal male nude.”

On advertising:

“So, it was really – you know, the first thing about advertising is that it needs to be arresting. It needs to make you stop and look. And sometimes challenge you and make you think.”

See/hear the full interview here.