The Shophound

DELAYED GRATIFICATION: Have A Look At Tom Ford's Fall 2012 Collection

When Tom Ford launched his women's line about a year and a half ago, he made a big deal about keeping his runway shows highly exclusive and embargoing any photo or video images of the collection until he saw fit to do so, usually several months later. Well, his shows are still exclusive and secretive, but the time frame appears to have been compressed. About a month after his Fall 2012 runway show in London, an official looking video has surfaced featuring the new collection. Perhaps since his Spring show was reportedly not warmly received, he wanted to get this minute and twelve seconds of images out earlier to prove that he was back in fine form. Take a look below at the sleek collection, and, yes, You'll see that Gwyneth Paltrow's white dress from the Oscars is included, cape and all.
(YouTube via The Cut)

VIDEO BLAST: Hey Kids, Tom Ford's Spring 2011 Fashion Video Is Now Online!

While the clothes themselves aren't earth-shattering or game-changing (though they are awfully pretty), we continue to marvel at how Tom Ford has managed to tease out his triumphant return to making women's clothes. As he promised, an official video of his ultra-exclusive Spring 2011 runway show has finally hit the web with all the supermodels and celebrities represented in classic fast cutting backstage/runway/front row style. Daphne! Amber! Beyoncé! They're all vamping up a storm and swilling champagne kind of like a fashion show scene in a movie where you watch and say, "Ugh! Real fashion shows are never like that!" After the jump, see the clothes that will be sold in a number of stores you can count on one hand, and you may never ever actually see in person at all.

Enjoy!

BELATED PREVIEWS: VOGUE.com Has The First REAL Photos Of Tom Ford's Women's Collection

Have you been waiting like crazy to see what Tom Ford's women's collection looks like? No, we don't mean some sneaky editor's blurry iPhone pics, but real studio shots of the complete outfits. Wait no longer. Vogue.com has revealed the results of its Steven Meisel shoot of the highly protected collection. Sadly, there's no Beyoncé, Daphne Guinness or Lauren Hutton, but there's Karen Elson, Amber Valletta, Carolyn Murphy, Joan Smalls, Stella Tennant and others who participated in the first New York fashion show to generate real excitement in God only knows how long.

Vogue has four images online, and presumably more in the upcoming December issue along with the obligatory profile of Ford. As for seeing the collection on red carpets, the designer has promised to wait to see who gets nominated for an Oscar and offer to dress a single nominee of his choosing (so if Julianne Moore gets nominated for "The Kids Are Alright' —a distinct possibility— then we know how that's going to go).

We can't really argue with Ford's desire to slow the breakneck pace of the fashion media, even if it makes our job harder. To make matters even more frustrating, he promises to continue showing the women's line in the same way each season —but in London. The clothes are slated to start arriving in his stores sometime in December which is why they have been embargoed until this point. The photos snapped by Terry Richardson at Ford's presentation should hit the designer's revamped website at around the same time. Everything looks beautiful. It's not an earthshattering collection from these pictures. He's not reinventing the evening gown, but the line just looks appealing, rich looking and chic.

The man knows his customer.

Click the image to go to Vogue's story and slideshow for full-sized images.

Mr. Ford Returns by Sarah Mower (VOGUE.com VIA The Cut)

Tom Ford SpawnsAt Bergdorf Goodman

Like any good designer with his sights set on Megabrand status, Tom Ford is rolling out carefully art directed shop-in-shops for his eponymous menswear collection, and a big one has landed at Bergdorf Goodman's Men's Store. It is being touted as the biggest in-store boutique that Bergdorf's has ever done (at least in the men's store) and includes all of Ford's lines including fragrance and accessories. It will be the only other outlet for Ford in the city aside from his own store. It covers the entirety of what was originally a Polo Shop (way back when the store first opened), a golf shop and more at the eastern end of the second floor. The lushly appointed suite of rooms contains a meticulous re-creation of Ford's Old-Hollywood-glam Madison Avenue flagship décor with a few strategic improvements.
Most notably, the doors are off the display fixtures. While the main boutique keeps almost everything in intimidating glass cabinets, Bergdorf's has wisely chosen to dispense with this detail, allowing for comfortable browsing without having to have a salesperson pull things out of drawers and armoires for just a brief look. By the same token, Ford's own boutique staff, whose concepts of service can veer wildly between suffocating hovering and stony indifference, is absent, replaced by Bergdorf's men's staff who, in our humble, but slightly biased opinion, are collectively the city's most skilled and professional. Also missing is the Lucio Fontana vagina-inspired painting that haunts the Madison Avenue entrance. Again, no great loss.
All this makes Ford's collection even more appealing, until you get to the prices, which are still kind of appalling, keeping it at the high end of Bergdorf's offerings - and that's a very high end. We have it on good authority, however that the prices aren't deterring customers, and Ford's $1,600 shoes are selling briskly.
Tom Ford at Bergdorf Goodman's Men's Store 745 Fifth Avenue, Second Floor, Midtown

Marc vs. Tom: The Nudie Wars

Photo by Philip Lorca di Corcia for W
How do these men expect to sell clothes if they insist on appearing without them at every opportunity?
We were really just kidding when we suggested that Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford were engaged in some sort of competition to see who can show up naked in the most magazines, but as if in response to Ford's cheeky appearance in OUT, here's Marc in the upcoming issue of W ostensibly showing off his new art collection. According to the article, Marc has replaced his substance addictions with obsessive art acquisition, tattooing and, evidently, exhibitionism. Let's just hope this isn't a prelude to some sort of ghastly Thierry Mugler-style body dysmorphic transformation.
Tom, the ball is now in your court...so to speak. 
W Feature: Marc Jacobs (Style.com)
previously: Tom Ford Can't Keep His Clothes On

Tom Ford Can't Keep His Clothes On

We thought that after his last fragrance campaign he had finally left the disrobing to others.
No.
In the upcoming issue of OUT, (probably NSFW) Ford once again appears in the altogether in a boxing themed photo spread by his favorite pervy photographer, Terry Richardson.
Why, why, why must he persist in doing this?
It's so unseemly.
Is he in some kind of competition with Marc Jacobs who has recently appeared on the covers of both OUT and Arena Homme Plus showing off his newly sculpted torso?
We are chalking it up to some sort of fashion designer mid-life crisis; an exhibitionist urge pioneered by Calvin Klein in the mid 1980s though he thankfully never took it to such extremes.
People, please, stop the insanity before John Galliano thinks he has to get in on the act!
OUT (preview includes NSFW uncensored images. You have been warned)
Previously: Tom Ford: Why Doesn't He Just Start a Porn Company  Already?
Photo by Terry Richardson for OUT 

Tom Ford: Why Doesn't He Just Start a Porn Company Already?

Tom Ford tells WWD today that he has switched direction for the launch of his Tom Ford for Men Fragrance later this fall. A more demure campaign by Marilyn Minter has been ditched in favor of a series of photos from pervy photograher Terry Richardson. As you can see from the scan pictured at right, Ford's new direction is 1970s Penthouse magazine cover. Reportedly among the other images chosen was one in which the fragrance bottle is strategically placed between a womans's thighs,  just covering her genitalia.
Classy.
The last time Ford was so inspired was his campaign for the Yves Saint Laurent men's fragrance M7 featuring a full frontal image of a nude man which nearly every American magazine rejected.
This change in direction is notable particularly because Ford told the same publication last June in, reference to this campaign, that nudity in advertising was a tired concept,

"I think we're living for a moment where maybe we saw so much nudity, at least in the press and magazines, that it doesn't seem the freshest solution; it almost seems too easy right now as a solution for advertising to get someone's attention," he said at the time. "So whenever everything tightens up again, of course, all of a sudden it's going to seem interesting and surprising to see someone nude again."

This is from someone who chose the models for his sunglass line launch from the porn world. Apparently, the easy solution is right again, but at some point, are Ford's dirty-old-man sensibilities going to start reflecting poorly on the international luxury brand he is working so hard to build?
Well, probably not.
Memo Pad: Tom Totally Nude - Again (WWD)

Tom Ford in 2008: Bergdorf's and Beyond

We'll still say he has put the cart the horse in so many ways, but Tom Ford has spelled out his plan for global domination expansion in DNR, and it includes among other things, a rollout of more freestanding and in-store shops starting with a dedicated boutique within Bergdorf Goodman's men's store and select Neiman Marcus locations starting in Spring 2008. Having built the lavish showplace flagship boutique, Ford and business partner former Gucci Chief Domenico De Sole are now planting the seeds for the immense luxury machine needed to support it, and let's hope they grow fast. The plan includes 100 wholly owned or franchised stores throughout the western (and eastern) world within 10 years, and the company has signed up a series of partners to take the brand to nearly every corner of globe. Bergdorf's may be one of the few stores that already matches Ford's opulent level of presentation, but we wonder how even their well trained staff will take to hanging all the merchandise behind glass cabinets. It still remains to be seen just how, in De Sole's words, "first true luxury brand of the 21st century” will be built only on menswear. Ford continues to hedge when asked when women's lines will be introduced, but to paraphrase James Carville, "It's about the handbags and shoes, stupid!" Now, when will we see those?
BREAKING NEWS: Tom Ford Set for Global Rollout (DNR)

TV Fashion Watch: Martha Meets Tom Ford & Donna Karan

Martha Stewart is having two designers who looooove to talk on her show this week so set your TiVos. Tuesday morning, Tom Ford will be making Grandma Ford's pecan pralines with Martha as well as showing off his new men's collection. Ford is also the topic of a large profile by Vanessa Grigoriadis in this week's New York Magazine, where in addition to his usual smarmy dirty-talk, he admits to being a little stung by some of the press response to his new store, particularly The New York Times' Critical Shopper,

“It was a nasty article, and I was upset, of course,” says Ford. “Though, honestly, with something like a secret shopper, how do I even know for sure the man came into the store? But I will do better.” He sighs. “Maybe people who have known me as innovating in terms of silhouette or fashion are irritated in a way that I’ve chosen to play a different game, and not their game. We are running a business that’s not for everyone, and I’m not trying to be an asshole, but some people can’t afford it and maybe there is a sort of resentment about that.”

Or maybe the store is just oppressively pretentious.
It's always entertaining to watch a bloated ego in defense, and we could go on and on about what's wrong with the store, (well, we already have) but why bother? It's like complaining about Paris Hilton. Star power seems to win out in the end, and we will certainly be watching Martha tomorrow.
That's not all for La Stewart this week. Don't touch that dial because on Thursday she has a power-diva summit scheduled with Donna Karan. No word yet on what she has planned for the raw-food devotée, but we would expect some sort of fashion show as well. In any event, we imagine this collision of larger than life personalities would have to be entertaining on some level.
Tom Ford After Sex by Vanessa Grigoriadis (NYMag)
The Martha Stewart Show (Official Site)

Horacio Goes Shopping: Uptown Pretension Edition

Horacio Silva takes the Critical Shopper reins today, and manages to free himself from his downtown comfort zone, focusing on a store we knew The Thursday Styles would have to hit sometime soon, the Tom Ford boutique. Not surprisingly, his reaction was exactly the same as ours, that the store is trying so hard to be luxurious and opulent that it winds up being exclusionary and affected. The Shophound happened to revisit the store a few days ago after our sneak preview of the new Asprey (officially opening today) to see if their service had warmed up after the tumult of their opening, but, sadly, our experience matched Horacio's. Nobody greeted us except for the doorman..and that's his job! We were again virtually ignored as we wandered through the rooms on the right side of the store, examined several shoes and even sampled the fragrances. You know the service is sorely lacking if nobody bothers you at a perfume counter. There was business being done. We must report at least two other customers actively buying at midday on Tuesday, but there was still plenty of staff available to help us. We were only approached in the salon to the left of the entrance when we reached into the one glass cabinet that happened to be left open so we could get a closer look at a suit . When we said that we were just looking, the relieved salesperson didn't attempt to engage us further in any way at all, or even bother to introduce himself in case we would need assistance later. So far, no improvement at Tom Ford, especially in contrast to the warm reception we received at Asprey.