Tom Ford Talks Sensuality, Sexy Older Women & Loving Fashion's Fast Pace

Designer Tom Ford, AP photoTom Ford talks fashion shop today with Telegraph UK’s Lisa Armstrong. The designer has a long relationship with London, where he will showcase his upcoming women’s wear collection. These days, Ford prefers the intimacy of one-to-ones with hand-picked magazines editors and women friends in his London showroom, to catwalk extravaganzas.

Ford has just been nominated along with Katie Grand and Sarah Burton for a 2011 BFA (British Fashion Award) tribute. The ceremony will be held on November 28. In the Designer Brand category, Ford competes with Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham and Burberry.

Ford echoes a common refrain about his relationship with a fashion world he doesn’t hesitate to criticize, saying he would die of boredom only making films. Ford has no expressed desire to slow down the fashion system, although he isn’t living life at John Galliano-warp speed.

The designer is also a health fanatic and lives for decades in a committed personal relationship with Richard Buckley. Tom Ford is disciplined about his life choices and always has been.

The perpetual Adonis is also reflective about aging, saying “My mother doesn’t like me saying this but she’s in her late seventies and her boyfriend’s in his late sixties. The point is she’s active and looks amazing, and yet we’ve taught ourselves to think that ageing’s embarrassing. That’s why I left all the wrinkles in the story shot for French Vogue of an old couple having sex”.

That editorial and —probably more consequentially — Ford’s editorial of 10-year-old Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau — may have helped good friend Carine Roitfeld exit Vogue Paris stage left. Ford says that Carine tries on all his clothes. If it’s not a love for her, the dust bin is closeby.

As for talking about sexuality, the man who generated more sexual heat at Guci than any major designer in history says that ‘sensuality’ — rather than raw ‘sexuality’ — is front and center in his mind today. Understand that the man’s hardly dead yet. Closing out his interview with The Telegraph, Ford commented on the wall of ‘heroically endowed’ nude male portraits in his office by saying ‘At least I’m an equal opportunity ‘objectifier.’

Anne has always been a big Tom Ford fan and considers Ford a great friend to women, unlike some other male designers.  More Tom Ford posts:

Tom Ford for Women

Why Fawn Over Imperious Fashion Designers When We Have Choices? AOC Body & Culture

Tom Ford’s AnOther Interview

Tom Ford is asked for five easy lessons in how to be a modern gentleman. He responds:

1. You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.

2. A gentleman today has to work. People who do not work are so boring and are usually bored. You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.

3. Manners are very important and actually knowing when things are appropriate. I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they’re walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at and leave the dinner table.

4. Don’t be pretentious or racist or sexist or judge people by their background. 

5. A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.

Womanly Breasts vs Fake Bombshells

Beauty Juicy Bits | Tom Ford & Natural Breasts | Crystal Renn Sans Underwear AOC Body & Culture

Crystal Renn and Tom Ford Prefer ‘Au Naturel’

How fascinating! Just yesterday we posted Crystal Renn’s saucy comments about enjoying the feeling of not wearing underwear.

Tom Ford tells Vogue: “The seventies is what I love. Soft, touchable beauty is what I love. I want to be touching the skin; I prefer no bra — I want to be able to slip in my hand.”

Oh Tom! Can you imagine Karl Lagerfeld making such a statement!

I rest my case to Victoria’s Secret: we are TIRED of bombing up the world. We want to be Snake Charmers not bombshells.  Glad to see that Tom Ford agrees with me. Anne

Self Exposed

Tom Ford Exposes Soulful Substance in ‘A Single Man’ AOC Style

Unless you were a completely uptight, repressed sexual personality, Tom Ford coachs you into sexual awareness. Even if you choose not to open Tom’s Pandora’s Box, you know what lays smoldering in the darkness. As Shakira said recently, “libido is the engine of the world”.

It’s true that Tom Ford is often accused of being a modern-day, superficially erotic dandy, but I never saw him that way. His persona and creative mind always seemed plentiful to me and in balance.

The Ford Face Vogue.com 9/9/11