75 waiters in white jackets, all with identical haircuts, serving champagne; flaming torches; chandeliers and gilded ceilings. Yep, you're at a Tom Ford show. And it's no secret that Ford is a mastermind — a saucy, saucy mastermind. And, as WWD's Bridget Foley notes, "no one else in recent memory has steamed up the runway more convincingly than he." So, then why were critics less than loving of his latest show at London's Lancaster House? Or even worse, as Ford noted, why were they so silent?
He was disheartened by the lack of critical reaction. He tells WWD, "They were not 'Oh my God, those are the worst things I've ever seen,' but they also weren't 'Oh my God, that was great.' They were sort of old-fashioned reviews, like 'Well, there were pink jackets.'" From the designer's point of view, the clothes were too loud to have nothing said about them. Even an extreme negative reaction would have merited more integrity in his eyes: "The whole thing felt a little more silent than I expected it to, because the clothes are not silent." Indeed, the clothes included some serious '80s-inspired runway risks, which Ford dubbed "Cross Cultural Multi Ethnic." Now, there's a mouthful.
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After a hiatus from the runway, we're not going to let one slipup have Tom pull a Ryan Gosling, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts and retreating back to whatever cave sexy people hide in when they're not out being fabulous.
Photo: Maria Valentino/MCV Photo