Tom Ford THINKS, therefore Tom Ford IS.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  In 2004, the then-Fashionfile uber journalist Tim Blanks candidly spoke with Tom Ford at the debut of his finale Gucci collection for Fall-Winter 2004-05 on a cold, dreary February night in Milan.  Tom stated that the Gucci world he had created for nearly a decade was very much that—his own.  This is how I view the Gucci woman and this is how I view the Gucci man—in this ideal Gucci world.  Faulted at times during his tenure for directional inconsistencies and met with disapproval for his libidinous marketing techniques, Ford remained victorious in his quest to re-build the house of Gucci into the corporate market leader of conglomerate Italian fashion it now represents today.  It was no easy task but Ford’s unwavering, self-driven vision is certainly to credit.  His last Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche collections presented during the Fall show season in 2004 were both archival odes to the hallmark house images Ford worked with during his career.  For YSL, a chinoiserie-laden acknowledgment of Opium.  At Gucci, a smoldering requiem of greatest hits re-worked into the utmost of Gucci prurience.  Each represented not only house ideas en masse (and at their very best), but the silhouettes and superior level of production value Ford would carry over into his namesake menswear in 2007 and a women’s ready-to-wear line conceived in 2011.

For Fall-Winter 2011-12, Ford waged ahead with the smoky, heavy designs of last spring that were shown in that now infamous secret Madison Avenue showroom.  All of the resilient Ford-era design motifs, of course steeped in perfectly lusty body consciousness, appeared to be present:  the exaggerated Bladerunner collar (think Fall-Winter 2003-04), the decadence of the incroyable (YSL  Fall-Winter 2002), waists cinched with ribbon like whipcord (Gucci Fall-Winter 1999, 2004-05) and the tailleur cut in conspicuously Gucci velvet (as seen throughout Ford’s stay at the house).  A cigarette pant cut in tuxedo silk was shown boot-cut while accents of sinister crimson offset sequin dripping lace embroideries.  The collection takes an exhibitionist turn when two purple-black degrade coats in shagged fur made appearances—of course followed by cut-out lace gowns in shades of imperial jade and sinister aubergine.  Aggressive, yes.  Borderline costume?  Perhaps.  But then again Ford has his client in mind and designs for how he specifically envisions their needs, lifestyles, and psyches.  Catering to the opinions of the often over-opinionated fashion blogosphere?  Irrelevant.  Designing with the hopes of receiving praise from highly influential publications and fashion historians alike?  Not even a consideration as far as Ford is concerned.  This just happens to be how he sees the Tom Ford woman—in yes, his ideal Tom Ford world.