Who is Tom Ford? I think of him as a very smart guy who brilliantly markets his good looks. But is he a good designer?
My friend Gaby, who is a Designer in Paris, once told me this anecdote. He came to Saint Laurent, stood up in front of his team and said, “browse the archive, make the collars wider and the skirts shorter. Let’s meet in a few weeks before the show”. It doesn’t really matter, he is super human.
I just saw this documentary and think did he really say that? He did a great movie, showing off his more intellectual capabilities. The clip shows his deeper side:
We live in a material world, velvet feels good, cashmere feels good. Colors excite us. there is a certain enjoyment be gained by materialism. We live in a material world. But we have to keep it in perspective. It is nothing. We own anything in our life. I ususally think of it as a bunch of stuff I am kind of swimming through, I must say I sometimes struggle, I am attracted to beautiful things.yet the same time I am very aware of their lack of value and the most important thing in life is the connection to other people. So it is a little struggle.
I am very familiar with this struggle. I don’t need all this wonderful crap. But I love beauty. Quality. Art. Ideas. Creativity. Craft. And some very prominent designers are referring to it as well. Buy less. Buy quality. Be with it. – I think I have my solution and will share my thoughts soon.
Fashion is not just clothes it is a mirror where we are culturelly at a moment in time or it can be or it can be an indicator where we are going.
We convince people they are not perfect enough, you need this and that. We promote materialism, which ultimately is not the thing which brings you happiness.
Fashion is a business. Fashion is something deemed by popular culture at a moment in time, to be the thing, that you should be wearing. You should have, but every one lives in their own world. Fashion is really in the eye of the beholder. Style for me is something completely different. You can be, what we consider in our culture unattractive and have great style. You can have no money and have great style. You can have a lot of money and have great style. More often, you have plenty of money and have terrible style. You plaster yourself with what you think you should be wearing and you lost yourself.
Style for me is somebody how figures out who they are, what works on them, what they feel good in and develops that. Develops their character. The outer expression of their character is style.