I hope people will put aside Tom Ford the fashion designer and think about Tom Ford the filmmaker.
Fashion is ruthless the way every three months you have to think about everything all over again.
This is something I realized after stepping away from women's fashion for the last five years. When you are inside, it is such a tiny group of people who think that this is the most important thing in the world. But when you get a little bit of distance, someone will say to you something like, "Don't you think that shoe is blah?" And I will be like, "What shoe? I don't know what you're talking about." It is very, very inside.
Fashion is very quick. It's very disposable. It's immediately - it tells you exactly where we are in our culture, especially women's fashion.
I think some journalists and bloggers want their articles to be clever, and the way into that is by writing nasty things. I think our culture likes to be mean. I don't just find this in fashion - I find it in the news. More and more, it is about ripping people apart.
Fashion creates a bit of a dream
I don't think fashion has to change every five minutes. I'd like these to be clothes you can wear for a long time - ten, 20 years; pass on to your daughter. Why buy vintage when you can open your own closet!
I enjoy the speed of fashion. I love doing different things and I think I still have something valid to say in fashion.
I love to design. I am a commercial fashion designer. I always design jackets with two sleeves. I don't design jackets with three sleeves, or the layers and layers come off like little dolls from Russia. Fashion for me is a creative endeavor, but it is not art for me.
While fashion is exciting because it changes all the time, it is also fleeting. Film, though, is forever. In a way therefore, film is the ultimate design project.
The dynamics of film directing and fashion design - in the ways that I've done it - were not dissimilar.
In fashion as in life, the right thing at the right time is the right thing. The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.
Part of fashion is newness. It's got to be a new combination of elements that's shocking-stunning-beautiful all at the same time. But it doesn't have any emotion.
I'm a fashion designer. What I do is artistic, but I'm not an artist because everything I do is destined to be sold. That's not to say that you can't be an artist and a fashion designer. I think some designers are artists.
Moving fashion used to be one of my chief goals. It's not necessarily any more. Fashion needs to change when life changes. You only need to move fashion forward when there's a reason to move fashion forward.
Fashion is much more collaborative than one might think. You have to have an idea and vision and you have to communicate that vision to a team of people and you have to create an environment that allows those people to give the best that they can give.
London is one of the few cities where people still dress properly and fashion exists. Every day I see women who've thought about their outfits. They've picked out the bag, put on proper shoes. ... Do you know how rare it is in parts of America to actually see 'an outfit'? France? I don't want to be anti-French but there isn't a more unattractive group of people on the streets.
I don't believe that clothes can start a revolution, but I do believe that fashion is often a manifestation of a sociological or political climate.
I was aware that I had to pay off things in a convincing emotional fashion, that I had to address the lingering plot points in some real tangible sense, and that I had to make this a self-contained novel, in case I'm run over by a bus tomorrow or in case there's no demand for anyone to ever see a sequel. (Two things that I hope don't happen, incidentally.)
I'm merely a fan of fashion from high end to streetwear, from Nike to Comme des Garcons.
Fashion Week is surprisingly very short. At least the actual runway shows are.
Color is very important in my work. That comes from style. My mother was a fashion model and an interior decorator, so that was me imitating her. My closest friend's mother was the same way, and her taste rubbed off on me, too. It's a domino effect of taste permeating through people.
When I was at college, the idea of fashion was more immediate to me, whereas art photography, the depth of it, was a different thing. Storytelling - fanciful storytelling - can only be told through fashion photography. It's the perfect way to play with fantasy and dreams.
I'm frequently introduced as a fashion designer, and I quickly say I'm not, and instantly people are incredibly disappointed and think that I'm some sort of charlatan who's been perpetuating this falsehood.
I've never said I'm a fashion designer.
