LONDON — Tom Ford has gone from sex bomb creator to brand builder. The collection he showed behind closed doors at private appointments during London Fashion Week was significant — not for its focus on the familiar dark glamour highlighted with gold that he staked out in his Gucci years — but for its heavy rollout of accessories.
Fashion Review
Tom Ford's Glamorama
Luke MacGregor/Reuters
Tom Ford, shown at the British Film and Television Arts awards in London last week, offered an autumn 2012 collection notable for its accessories.
By SUZY MENKES
Published: February 21, 2012
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Only the successful make-up and fragrance lines with Estée Lauder were missing from an offering of eyeglasses (another hit category); jewelry; 65 shoes and boots; 94 bags, mostly with heavy metal decoration, and 10 evening purses.
‘’And we are only just beginning,” said Domenico De Sole, the designer’s business alter ego from Gucci, who has been working with the newly launched label since its inception in 2005.
The Tom Ford brand today is surely what the duo would have done if the two men had built on the designer’s name from the get-go: a classic construction of high end luxury at the top of the pyramid, and myriad categories below.
After proving that Tom Ford designs were for every woman (providing they were rich and famous), the designer cut out the celebrities and the variations to create what he called a “distinct look.”
From the furry alpaca coats in bright pink or canary yellow to the leather suits and beaver capes, the designer did what he does: luxury looks with the heavy perfume of Hollywood glamour.
Wearing fetching new eyeglasses and a perfectly tailored suit, Mr. Ford showed Oscar-worthy gowns to haute couture standards. That meant the scales of a crocodile cut up and reassembled on stretch jersey or a fling-over cape attached to a slinky white dress. Add a crystal bib — but only if you lack the real diamonds.
Because, like their creator, the clothes are seen mainly after dark, the nearest to a daytime outfit was a pencil skirt worn with knee-high boots or the pin-heeled court shoes that Mr. Ford finds more alluring than platforms. He even added zippered leather leggings to be worn over the shoes to “elongate the silhouette.”
If — or when — there is a Tom Ford trunk show, you can imagine the designer, looking as dapper as Jean Dujardin in “The Artist,” taking orders from every swooning client.
He deserves his success. But the collection belongs to the glamorama of visible wealth and deep-grain luxury, of trophy wives and kept women — not to the pulsating, vibrantly colored, forward-looking, hypercreative universe of young London fashion.
