Before
jumped on a plane to Los Angeles early on Tuesday morning, I asked him
to explain his fall collection. People hurried from Lancaster House in a
complete state of puzzlement, if not panic that they would miss J.W.
Anderson’s show.
Tom Ford“What was that all about?” an editor said, half groaning, of
Mr. Ford’s brightly beaded outfits and silk gowns with comic-book-style
explosions of embroidery, as in KAPOW!!
Another person said, rather unkindly, “Jeremy Scott for billionaires.” Mr. Ford’s clothes are quite expensive.
“So what was it all about, Tom?” I asked him over the phone.
After quickly explaining that it was about the mash-up of cultural
styles — Inuit with Japanese and so on — and a little of the usual
high-low mix, he said, “Didn’t you read the card on your seat?”
Well, no, I said. I sat on mine. The room was so dark that many
guests needed assistance just locating their names on the seats. They
didn’t have the strength to bother with another card with show notes.
At that point I wanted to sound like Maggie Smith trilling, “Oh, Tom, why make it so difficult? Give us a little light.”
One should not make the mistake of over-analyzing his intentions on
the runway. This was high-definition style as much as it was a
cross-cultural mix. “Each piece had to be potent,” Mr. Ford said. In
other words, each piece had to be visual. The shapes were consistent
with recent Ford collections, like the sporty tops and hoodies in his
spring line. The silhouette was recognizably Ford, the suits now with
skirts that had been notched at the hem. He simply blasted everything
with beads and embroidery. And clearly he wanted to make a show
statement — in a grand British house near St. James’s Palace — after
several seasons of quiet presentations.
You can picture Rihanna in these clothes. Indeed, Mr. Ford, who has
dressed the pop star, mentioned her in our conversation. But with some
self-editing, you can also imagine a woman wearing a spangled top with a
pair of black pants.
I rather liked that he had the deliberate bad taste to show a
head-to-toe look in pink, complete with matching boots, and I told him
so. It’s a loud and proud editorial statement, a kapow to minimalists.
But how would Mr. Ford feel if he saw a woman walking down the street in his complete, bedazzled look?
He’d like it fine, he said, “if it was on the right lady, and she’d
paid the full retail price for it.” He laughed. But he conceded that
it’s much better to mix things up in a more personal way.
Source : nytimes.com @ By : CATHY HORYN
