Everyone in Tom Ford's office looks beautiful. Those who aren't physically beautiful at least look beautiful in their perfectly tailored Tom Ford suits and dresses. His work really is that transformative. And this year he has truly returned to London, from his first London Collections: Men presentation to his first ever large-scale catwalk show at London Fashion Week in February to his first London store. No wonder GQ have named him Designer Of The Year.
I am led into his office exactly on schedule. The room exudes sex and power, the two main themes of his work. There are erotic advertising campaign photographs on the walls, a huge, dark wooden desk, an impossibly high ceiling. Tom looks immaculate - true masculine perfection. Groomed as if he has stepped out of one of his own campaigns, Tom's look hasn't changed for decades - the stubble, the white shirt, the black suit - but it has never dated, either. Without doubt Tom Ford is iconic, and his name will live on as one of the very few truly legendary fashion designers.
I have known Tom for a few years - he was a fan of Little Britain and wanted to meet me. I was completely starstruck when our mutual friend Tim Jeffries arranged a dinner. Soon after, Tom and I became friends. That was seven years ago, and although we have had many dinners, some with just the two of us talking for hours, I could not say I truly know him. There is something unknowable about Tom Ford. Where does the man end and the brand begin?
In his office, Tom asks me if I would like something to eat. I was expecting Beluga caviar on a silver platter, but Tom opens a packet of Percy Pigs (the Marks & Spencer confectionary, which he confesses he is addicted to), and we begin our conversation.
Tom: I was scared when I heard you were going to interview me.
**David: Why? Because you thought I'd probe you?
** Well, David, I've been hoping for that for years.
No, because I noticed recently at dinner that when one talks to you, instead of seeming to listen, I can hear the wheels of your head clicking to formulate a clever response.
**I think you are talking about yourself there, because you are the archest man I've ever met.
** No, see, you're projecting.
I saw the film about Liberace last night, Behind The Candelabra, and I thought it really reminded me of somebody...
Oh, I'm not as camp as Liberace. He reminds me more of you! You could have played that role perfectly.
I wish I had been asked. Now, you started off your career as an actor. What age were you when you were first in a commercial?
I was 17. It was when I moved to New York and was in college.
Did you enjoy the attention of being on television?
No. As a kid growing up all I wanted was to be an adult. I wanted to live in New York in a glamorous apartment wearing beautiful clothes and living a life that actually probably doesn't exist in the way that it is portrayed in film. At that point we didn't have cell phones and all these magazines ripping actors and actresses apart, so when they were photographed, it looked like their lives were perfect. So I wanted to be an actor. I wasn't very well suited; I was a very good mimic and I am actually not a bad actor. I think I have acted a lot of my life. I have [created] a persona that is a performance, and then there's a real persona behind it. David, you can't smirk like that! I won't be able to maintain my train of thought. I mainly did a lot of television commercials.
It would be fascinating to see them. One day someone may unearth them if they write a biography of you.
I don't think anyone cares enough to write a biography.
I think people would be fascinated to read about your life, as you are such an enigma.
An enigma? Why?
Because people see you as this perfect self-creation. A little too perfect to be real.
I'm not comparing myself in the least to Cary Grant - God, he was so handsome and so perfect - but there's a famous quote where an interviewer said, "I wish I could be Cary Grant" and Cary Grant said, "I feel the same way - I wish I could be Cary Grant." His entire life persona was a performance.
Do you think that was anything to do with his sexuality?
More than sexuality. I'm an introvert but I live the life of an extrovert. I am aware of the value of image to sell product, which is what I do.
Would you say you were an icon?
I don't know that I would say that I am. I have been called that because I have a certain look and it doesn't change. Cary Grant never changed his look; he rarely played a different type of role and when he did, he was ripped apart by the press.
So how did your career in fashion begin? With a love of menswear or womenswear?
It started with a love of fashion for me. As a little kid, I just loved adult clothes. I would wear tailored trousers and blue blazers and I carried a briefcase to school. I wore a man's single-breasted raincoat when I was six or seven. I wanted to be an adult. I was never interested in being a child. I always felt like an imposter. I remember thinking, "I can't wait to be 50." I had even planned how I would age, when I was going to get the grey streaks on the side of my hair.
Why were you frustrated as a child?
I didn't like being a child. I had no real friends [and] I was bullied because I went into the first grade when I was five. I was the smallest [and] least physically developed, so for the first four or five years of school I would stay inside.
If you were out playing with lots of other kids, you probably wouldn't have developed your creative side.
I probably wouldn't have done that anyway because I am a complete introvert. I cannot stand a party with more than eight people.
Is it because of the attention you get being famous?
It's because it's a performance. You have to switch into performance mode and, yes, it probably has to do with the attention.
If you really don't like being recognised, why do you always put yourself in your advertising campaigns?
That's part of my business persona.
**When you finally created your own brand, after years at
Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, did you have one particular vision for it?**
Yeah, I started with men's. It was completely organic. I created it because I couldn't find all the things that I wanted - I couldn't find a shop.
Whose clothes were you wearing then?
When I left Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, I was only wearing Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent because if I wanted something I could just have it made. I just drew it and said: "Make this." Then I put them on the collection. When I left, I had to go to a tailor.
I went to Anderson & Sheppard on Savile Row and it is a wonderful tailor. But I used to argue about the lapel: "No, I want it this way." "But sir, that's not how it is done." "I don't care." When one shops on Savile Row - and maybe this has changed - it's not a luxurious experience. There is a little fitting room, with a curtain and a little stool in it, and they walk in while you are standing there with your underwear on and there's nobody running to get you a glass of champagne. It's not the movie version... and I wanted to create the movie version.
**I love Savile Row, but I do buy most of my clothes from your stores. Tell me, why is it all so expensive? **
Because we still manufacture in Italy. There is a quality in Italy that one can still get that goes back centuries.
Where did the silhouette come from?
I cut all of those on myself. I am very conscious I want my butt to look smaller; I want my waist to look small; I want my shoulders to look strong.
So who inspires your menswear?
Historically, it depends on whether we are doing South of France or whether it's a young Alain Delon or whether it's Lapo Elkann, who is someone who makes it on to my board quite often.
Is dressing well a form of having good manners?
You've been reading my quotes.
No I haven't; I don't spend every night googling you.
I believe if you're meeting someone for dinner, you dress smartly to show that you respect them. I absolutely think that dressing well is an expression of manners. I think dressing well on an airplane is an expression of manners, too.
Someone told me they saw you on a plane - was it David Beckham? I am really name-dropping now.
No, but I've been on a plane with Victoria quite a few times.
So it must have been her who told me that you arrived for the flight in a three-piece suit and you just undid one of the buttons on your waistcoat when you laid down to go to sleep.
That's true; I have a way of sleeping.
So you have been on a plane with Posh Spice several times. Do you ever get starstruck?
I actually don't. I used to.
Who were you starstruck by?
I was starstruck by everybody famous at first, but I think both of us live in a world where pretty much everyone we know or meet is famous. Or they work for us!
Our lives are very different, Tom.
Come on, David, when do you meet a non-famous person? When and where?
Today, interviewing you.
[Laughs] I had dinner with Joan Collins the other night.
My partner, Richard, said I was a little bit starstruck.
Perhaps she could play you in a movie of your life.
Maybe you could, David.
I am too butch. Who could play you? Meryl Streep?
I have no idea and no, not Meryl Streep.
**We are near the end of our time together today for
GQ, where you have been named Designer Of The Year.
Congratulations. Did I ask you anything that you've never been asked?**
No.
That's really frustrating.
I'm sorry.
What have you never been asked?
I don't know, David. I've done about a thousand interviews.
What's the secret of your hair? Have you been asked that?
Yes, but I might answer that. What do you mean, "the secret of my hair"?
Well, how come you've got a lot more hair now than you used to?
Propecia [a hair-loss drug]. I could do an advert for Propecia.
Are you attracted to women?
Sexually, I'm gay - I hate that word - but I'm on a kind of scale. I think we are all on sliding scales and I'm slightly bisexual, but predominantly I am homosexual. I have had relationships with women that were quite intense, sexually and emotionally.
**What's your favourite part of a woman's body? **
Legs. Although when I see a woman with incredibly perfect breasts I find it very, very beautiful.
Is vanity unattractive in a man?
Why?
Well, you talked about Cary Grant and one thing you said is that his look never changed, [but] looking at him at the end of his life, he's got white hair and he's a little heavier than he was.
You don't think that man took care of himself? You don't think he has had his teeth done? Look at [his] early pictures.
But he didn't have face-lifts, did he?
I don't know about face-lifts, but the man certainly spent time taking care of himself.
**But there is a difference. Sometimes a man who has gone under the knife looks vain and, to me, it's unattractive. **
I agree that it looks unattractive, but I don't think of it as vanity - I usually think of it as insecurity. The most attractive people have a kind of ease about them, or are able to muster the appearance of ease.
Some actors kill their careers by having work done.
But yours is just still going on despite all your surgery.
Are you scared of dying?
Not at all.
Are you concerned you may go to hell?
No, that's where all the fun people will be. I suppose now I have a child I'm afraid of dying before I can get him to a stage where he can take care of himself. Before that, no. I'm not at all afraid of dying. Death for me will be like, ticked that box. Lived.
Originally published in the October 2013 edition of British GQ.
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