May 2, 2023 • 46 mins
The name Tom Ford symbolizes many things: strong-shouldered suits, evocative fragrances, daring advertisements, and a brand that Estée Lauder bought in a deal valued at $2.8 billion late last year. But it also represents the American designer behind all those things, whose unerring taste has made him a master at everything he touches, from fashion and beauty products to feature films—Ford directed A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016), both of which were nominated for Academy Awards. On this week's Table for Two, Ford shares a rare lunch on the town with Bruce Bozzi and is unmistakably himself in a black suit, white shirt (with deliberately unbuttoned cuffs for the occasion), and matching pocket handkerchief. Here, he discusses his life beyond fashion and within it, and in all his charming contradictions—Ford is contemporary but classic, shy yet assertive—he adds color to his known authority on how to look good anywhere, and everywhere. Hear a preview of the episode below, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back. You're listening to Table for two.
This is Bruce Bosi and we are at the Sunset
Tower on a beautiful October day past.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh you're doing you're doing your voice. Wow, it's a
whole lunch radio voice.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And we're sitting at a specific table that I think
is the most elegant, glamorous, well let table.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
In the room.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And there's a reason for it, and it's the Tom
Ford table because today we're having lunch with the man himself,
Tom Ford. Our conversation was recorded back in October, before
the two point eight billion dollar sale of Tom's company
to Estay Lauder was announced, So while we don't talk
much about that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Change, we do cover the things that made that brand.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Such a success, elegance, beauty, and layer. Speaking of which
Tom's wearing a black suit and a white shirt.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Big change.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
It's what I always I love that your cuffs are
not buttoned.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh yes, it's my casual look.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
This is Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast Table
for two.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
You have to know this about Tom.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So Tom and I had the pleasure of our children
going to the same school at a certain period of time,
so I drop off and Tom would be dropping his
son off at school, as I would might be dropping
my daughter off, and oftentimes I'd turn the corner and
at eight o'clock in the morning, this is what you
look like.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh, because it's easy, you know. I think people think, oh,
a suit's so fancy, blah blah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Blah a suit.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
A suit is so easy, you know, you don't have
to think. And I wear the same not the same
exact suit. I have probably ten of them that are
just copies of each other. But I think it's important
in love to figure out what you look good in,
what you feel comfortable in. You know, you don't need
to change your style or your fashion just because fashion changes,
(02:16):
you know. I think the most iconic people in the
world are when you think about, you know, what someone
looks like. You think about icons. I mean, for example,
they don't usually change their style.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, it can be a good example of that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Let me finish, No, it was interrupted by food.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Unfortunately for Tom. Food came. Even though you know this
is about lunch.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I know, but it's not about lunch. It's about talking.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And I was.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
In fact, I never have lunch. I never go out
to lunch.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I'm very honor.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You usually don't even eat at my desk. If I'm
in the office and I smell food, I'm like, who's
eating food? Dinner is different, you know, dinner's fine, but lunch.
It interrupts my day. It interrupts my way of thought.
I don't like going out in the daytime past a
certain age. Nobody looks good in overhead overhead daylight speaking,
(03:08):
don't I think we're at Tom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
We are at the Tower Bar, which is a very
very beautiful, elegant restaurant, very Hollywood. Jeff Clin's done an
incredible Jeff Clin owns the place, and we're at Tom's table,
and Tom.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
We are at my table, although I never sit here
in the day as I only sit here at night.
And I'm so crazy that I had them black out
the overhead spotlight at my table. There's an overhead light
at every other table. They put candles at mine. But
I won't sit with an overhead light because nobody looks
(03:44):
good with an overhead light. You get shadows over your eyes,
you get shadows, you know, shadows everywhere. Even if you're young,
you don't look great with the overhead light, So avoid
it at all.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Costs, so go back.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You were telling me, well, way, don't want to talk
about lighting, because you know we were at your house
the other Oh my god, and I was watching you
get dressed, and you don't have proper lighting in your bathroom.
I don't know how you do it. Because someone once said,
or I read, or I don't know, some famous decorator
or famous vain person that lighting a bathroom is all
(04:16):
about lighting the face. And it's true. You know, a
powder room's different. It's for guests, it's evening. You know
that needs to be sexy, sensual, not overly lit. But
your bathroom, I mean you've got to be throwing light
on your face and again after a certain a Bruce,
(04:38):
you need a magnifying mirror because I think if you
can make yourself look great with a mirror magnifying your
face and a really bright light, you know you're gonna
look good when you go.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
So I had one.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I had the magnifying your not the light, and Tom
was helping me get ready and a photo shoot that
Tom was art directing, which was really great. We had
a really wonderful afternoon, but you had to put You
kind of taught me a little bit about men's makeup.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know, a little putting.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Which makeup, let's call it grooming groom, which, by the way,
you know, isn't It's just to make your skin look better,
especially when you're having you know, a photograph done. But
I mean I could talk about that for for well,
because there are all sorts of tricks you know, which
you learn well, you learn when you today. Know, if
(05:27):
you've ever done a you know, a talk show or
something like that, the makeup artist will put matt powder
under your eyes because light bounces off of slick, shiny surfaces.
So if there's something matt under your eyes, a light
can't bounce off of it, and underneath your eyes look
(05:48):
dead smooth. So you know, again, past a certain age underneath.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Of your you know, the part underneath you know, I'm
past that certain age is about thirty No I'm kidding,
I'm kidding, good kiddy, And then you told me that
fifty five it gets you get to that next Well, no, no,
I'm sixty one. So I mean, if you can, everyone
knows what you did like. This is not what sixty
one looks like. This is certainly not what sixty one.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Someone said to me the other day. You know, Oh, sixties,
the new fifty, and seventies, the new sixty, but eighty
is still eighty and it's kind of true.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yes, Lighting, you taught me a little bit about grooming
and evening out my skin, and I get it. So
I used to see Tom at school because we have kids.
So tell me how's fatherhood been, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
What it was?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh, fatherhood is amazing this.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Year, I want to send my condolences. I love.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I used to see Richard in the morning, in the
afternoons picking up Jack, and.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
We were together for thirty five years. And it's been hard.
It's been about a year now and only now am
I actually able to really start seeing a future, seeing
a third act hopefully in my life, both you know,
professionally and personally. It's been hard, and I've really just concentrated.
(07:24):
I mean, you know, when I say it's been hard,
a lot of other people have had to go through this.
So I realized that it's part of life, losing someone
that you love and someone that you've been with for
a long time. But I've concentrated the year really on
keeping Jack, my son's life as normal, you knows as
it could be because it was very traumatic for him too,
(07:48):
to lose his father, you know, right before he turned nine,
and that was that was hard. Oh yes, kids, I'm
trying to keep cutting you off. I have a feeling
where both people that like to talk a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
We all know, we go all over it.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But but but back to that. When I was about
to have Jack, a therapist said to me, you know,
having a child is the most selfish thing in the
world that you can do. But raising a child is
the most self less thing that I've never heard of.
And it's true because you know, the world is where
(08:27):
there are plenty of people on the planet. So having
a child and saying, you know, I want to bring
another creature into existence could be considered somewhat selfish. But
raising a child indeed is self less. And you know,
I'm sure a lot of people listening to this have kids,
and you know that, you know, you know that it's selfless.
(08:49):
You do you give up.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yourself, it's the you know, the minute you hold that baby.
The daunting responsibility. Just that overwhelmed me at least was
like wow, like everything is now changed and everything is
about ava and it is not easy. Now I'm getting
into the high school years. So it's a little bit
(09:12):
more about me.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Oh, I was desperate to talk about the baby crib
in your bathroom for a year or two. So there's
your bathrooms the size of a basket.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Brian and I.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So when we have a bedroom that had two bathrooms
and wh ava was small, we made one of the
bathrooms her room.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The bathrooms, as I said, they're the size of most
people's living room.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know that is t M I you can editing.
That's fun. So let's talk about beauty. Let's talk about yes, beauty,
and there's so much going on, no are we No?
I mean I said Tom, Tom smells so good.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What I'm wear.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Which is one of my fragrances, I take on a beldejour,
which is a Catherine Deneuve was in and Boudegeor is
the mask version. It's a very somewhat classic fragrance that
when I was developing it, I sort of was thinking, Okay, well,
if carry Grant we're alive today, what kind of fragrance
(10:21):
would he'd be wearing. So it's more classic than a
lot of my other frame is that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The one of the first things you notice about someone
when you see scent like that it smells scent?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Is that their eyes? It's their shoes? Like what what gus?
The team?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It's eyes. It's not shoes, its eyes.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
What do you what do you see? You're talking about
the color of the eyes.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Nose has nothing to do with the color. Yeah, it's
something in people's faces. I'm closing my eyes while I
talk to you because I often close my eyes when
I talk because I can I can concentrate and focus. No,
when I say eyes, I guess it's expression. You know,
some people just look behind and other people just look
(11:03):
like jerks, and often it proves to be true. So
it's something about people's faces. And if they have a
kind face, I noticed that, or you know, an intelligent face.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, yeah, I think it's important because I have the
gift of having lunch with town four to talk about
the gift.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You can have lunch with me anytime where we actually.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Eat, because neither one of us are eating because I'm
I dare not eat as now that I know you.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Can eat, it will just make chewing nor.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I know, I know, well you know, I guess the
beauty secret.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I guess that's not really what I'm so interesting, But like,
there seems to be a whole movement about and they
call it that I think anti anti aging, but that's
even not a good term. Like what people are doing
now to sort of age gracefully beautifully.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It's so interesting You want to talk about beauty so
much because it's so I mean, obviously I'm in the
beauty business, and of course, you know, I can tell
you lots about different kinds of skincare, different kinds of
makeups or all the makeup or you know, tricks to
look better. But for me, that's so much not what
life is about. What is like, it's so funny. I
(12:13):
often go to parties and people will actually want to
have a serious conversation with me about moisturizer, and I'm like,
what are you talking about? Were you talking about moisturizer?
Let's talk about politics or what you're doing, or the
latest film you've seen, or we get there.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
We touch upon me.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, well okay, what's going on? Just right now?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
No?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
No, no, just it with beauty that you're like, okay, this.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is people are injecting way too many things.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Let's talk about the procedures.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, let's talk about facial dysmorphia, because I think a
lot of people You look at a lot of celebrities
now and you just think, oh my god, what do
they see when they look in the mirror. They don't
even look like themselves any longer, And it is truly dysmorphia.
I think a lot of these people lose touch with
(13:05):
who they were. They see a line and they think
they have to fill it. They see a wrinkle and
they've got to fill it. They see someone else's mouth
and they think they need to have that. And I
think it is a problem culturally for us. I think,
you know, everything has to be done in moderation, and
it's very hard, I think, to maintain your eye and
(13:27):
realize that, okay, well you do have to age. That
is it looks odd sometimes when people literally don't age.
I just don't want to get into specifics about who
who looks great, who doesn't look great. Well, Well, for me,
I have a good friend, well Ali McGraw, who's a friend,
and she looks incredible. She's in her mid eighties and
(13:50):
she's beautiful, absolutely beautiful right, and has not done anything
to herself. Oh, she takes care of herself, you know.
I think a certain point you have to give up
trying to be best in show and settle for best
in class. And so if you're a certain age, look
the best you can possibly look that age. Take care
(14:12):
of yourself, eat well, exercise. It's all those same old
things you hear about. You got to exercise, you gotta
eat well, You've got to take care of yourself.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And that's true.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Welcome back to table for two.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I am having an incredible time here at the Sunset
Tower with Tom Ford. And since we're not eating right now,
I'm wondering when does Tom have lunch?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So you you don't eat except for dinner.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I actually do eat lunch, but I don't go out
to lunk going out to lunch, and I never go
to lunch parties. You know, during Oscar Week, a very
good friend of ours always has a lunch party.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And I know go during the day as well.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
During the day breaks up my day, ruins whatever I'm
working on that day. I don't drink. So you go
to a lunch party, people are drinking, they get sloppy.
It's you know, okay, I just want to get on
with my day and dinner. I've been to your house
and you eat. It's super clean, very fish, a lot
of fish. I was vegan for a few years and
(15:35):
now I eat fish as well.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So is that the kind of so you prefer entertaining
at home and being sort of in control of the food.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Well, I started entertaining or having people over for dinner
a lot during Richard's illness because he really couldn't go out.
So for the last five years we've pretty much just
had people to our house for dinner. Now I'm realizing, oh,
there are restaurants, I can go out, I can go
(16:04):
out with friends, and so I've been doing that a
lot more.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Are you are people? If I'm allowed to ask asking
you out on date? Because I know a lot of
people that want to ask.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Around a date, it's good.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Really, No no one has ah.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And that's surprising.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, well I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm only now even starting to think about that and
maybe starting to be able to well, as I said,
to think about it. But no no one ever comes
on to me, No one ever asks me out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That is that's shame, But okay, I got it. Do
you think it's because of like there's an austereness about you?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Because of austere you know probably I don't know, you know,
I think I'm actually a very shy person. I don't
know that, you know, most people would believe that. But
I think sometimes when you're very shy, you can see
aloof right, and it's really a defense to just kind of,
you know, maintain a story. And I'm very formal person.
(17:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
You are a.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Formal person, well meaning that it takes a while, you know,
but by the way Europeans are, and I've lived in.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Europe for thirty years or.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
More, and Europeans are by nature much more formal than Americans.
You know, especially in California, people hug you immediately, and
you know, you waiter, I'll come over and tell you
his name, what his favorite food is on the menu,
ask you personal questions. And it's very very odd to me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I mean, your hardline at a dinner party when we've
hosted them, when you as like the whole spousal thing,
separate spouses.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh my god, you have to. I mean, yeah, I'm
old fashioned, you know. I believe if you go to
a dinner party, you cannot sit spouses next to each other.
You have to split them up that way when they
go home and get into bed. They've got a lot
of things to gossip about. Oh my god, that woman
who said next to me she was a nightmare, she
was horrible. Really, well, you didn't have to sit next
to him, Wow, he was so boring. No, yes, And
(18:05):
did you see what she had on? You know, if
you're sitting next to your spouse, you don't get to
do that.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
You don't know, and it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's the point of a dinner party is to meet
new people, or to at least be able to talk
to people you don't talk to every day.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You bring up La, so I associate you because New York.
You're not done yet. I think you're completing your work
on Houstin's townhouse.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
That is, let's call it my townhouse. Yes, formerly it belonged.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
To all we have New York London.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I actually was in that. I was in that house
when I was eighteen. I was dating someone who worked
for Anti World at the factory and went by I
probably would have been nineteen seventy nine to pick someone
up before we went out, and I walked.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Into that house and I was just like wow, really.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And so it's amazing that to me that I own
that house now.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And yeah, the beautiful thing about life.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I mean like that. Yeah, if you live long enough
you get to have.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Those are you? Are you keeping it in that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Sort of I actually put it back to the way
that it looked. It was designed by an architect called
Paul Rudolph, who was the dean of architecture at Yale.
And there's a long story to that I won't bore
your listeners with, but he redesigned the house for Halston.
It wasn't designed originally for Halston, redesigned it for him
(19:31):
when he moved in in nineteen seventy four, and then
it was owned after that by Johnny Annelli and Gunter
Sachs and it had been ripped apart sadly, and so
I have basically put it back the way it was
because it was pretty. It was pretty perfect.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Yeah, how cool.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
But I mean, but that's sort of like your thumb
print on so many things. You bring back, you make
thinks sexy again, you bring things back. What you did,
you know with Gucci, what you've done over the course
of the town Ford, it's certainly my style. Thank you,
You're welcome. We have very specific feelings about our cities.
(20:16):
Tell me about Los Angeles. You're Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I love LA.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I love the sun, I love the palm trees, I
love the climate. I grew up in the American West,
so I love space. I love the history of LA,
you know. But I suppose I maybe live in the
past imagination of the LA or what it was. I mean,
(20:40):
you know of all those film sets, and you know,
and life was never like you saw in the movies
or you saw in press photos from let's say, the
golden age of Hollywood. But that is what is still
in my head. That has nothing to do with the
reality of LA today.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
LA is a very family oriented city. I love it
when Richard was alive, you know, and everyone stays home
in LA. It was one thing to me. Now that
I am single, LA can be a very isolating place.
You know, We're all in our cars. There's not street
life the way there is in other cities like New
(21:21):
York or London, and you can feel very isolated. And
I'm feeling that at this moment and my life. And
I lived in London for more than twenty years and
I've just bought a place there and you did, I did,
and I'm thinking of possibly moving back. Yeah, well I
haven't told my son that yet, so I don't think
(21:42):
he'll be listening.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
To this podcast. Jack.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
He loves anyway, and he grew up there. We're up
there till he was five. He had the most beautiful
English accent, which now sounds very califul.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
You know, he's he's a special, special boy. We're basically neighbors,
and which is like.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Said, neighbors. Now, how many times do we see That's
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And frequently live.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Less than five minutes away from each other and we
see each other, yeah, six times a year. But that's
the way everyone is.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
As much as I would hate you doing that, you're
going to move to New York.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Exactly, but I'm going to move to New York. And
I'm also your daughter doesn't know that, now do they
all know that?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I mean, I have four years, three and a half years,
and I would like a room in your place in London,
like maybe like a downstairs apartment that can just come
and go when I visit.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And I do think London is a great.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
The reason I like London is that it has all
of the I mean, I have a place in New York,
so I'm lucky. I get to go, you know where,
whatever city I want. But what I like about London
and it says all the cultural the features of New York,
but it is a calmer city. If you're in your
(22:58):
house in London, you can hear your clock tick, whereas
in New York you hear a horns home, you've talked to,
you feel the rumble of the way you feel. You
open your door and you're just bombarded. Whereas in London
you can open your door and there's a park in
front of you, or a garden or a you know,
it's a different a different rhythm.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So do you have will this happened soon? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
No, Oh my gosh, what I don't know. I mean,
I'm renovating it now. It'll be done in May, and
we'll certainly spend the summer there.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And so we're thinking, all right, wow or not or not? Well,
you don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
As I said, I love la I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Let me thank you that gosh, you have my mind
going all around.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So you I read something that I thought was super
groovy and cool about you.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
What and if this is true all of it?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Of course, you, when you were a young boy, used
to rearrange your parents furniture, and I think.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
And they let me do it. I think they realized
I could do it better than they could. They went
out to a movie. I grabbed a babysitter or nanny
or whatever was with and I said, all right, we're
moving the sof over here. We're pushing that over there.
And I would say to my mother before she left me,
I going to rearrange the living room when you leave,
and she would say, Okay, go for it, go go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
That is so fun to me.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I think, you know my parents. My mother is
still alive. She lives here in LA and she's great.
But my parents were great. They allowed me to be
creative really in any way that I wanted. They were very,
very supportive always, and I think they knew that I
enjoyed this and that I was good at it, and
(24:43):
so okay, let him do it right.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
That's very special. Do you let that happened with Jack?
No way Jack wanted to change.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
He would be like, well, Jack has his own bedroom
and playroom, and I mean, he can do whatever he
wants in there, but no, can't touch the rest. And
I don't know that I'll ever be able to be
with anyone else romantically maybe yes, but I don't think
I could live with anyone else. I mean, my are
so perfectly. Somebody's gonna come in, so can I put
(25:13):
my grandmother's chest right here?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
And it's like, no, you would be so difficult to
live with.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Just so you know, I'm easy.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
No, from the that side of like putting things down,
like you can't put that there.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Brian's somewhat like that, just not as bad.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I think the only way I could ever live with
someone again was to keep my place, let them keep theirs,
and then we get someplace together. Yeah that is because yeah,
I'm very or they have to just be somebody who
just lets me do it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Like that's you, that's your area.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, you're an incredibly talented art director.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Are you taking photographer? You really should have? Thank you,
You're welcome. One of the things you do really well.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
And I think one of the reasons, like all your
stuff is so sexy, is not just because of you,
but how you present it.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
You've leaned into that, You've leaned in.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
An equal sectionality. I'm an equal opportunity objectifier. Yeah, I
am just as happy to objectify men. You know, in
our culture we objectify women all the time. We have
used nude women or barely clad women to sell products
for years, and I'm glad that finally, you know, they're
(26:31):
you know, we're using men in that same way, and
it's okay now for men to be sexy. So many
straight guys will come to my shop. They're trying on
a pair of pants and they want to turn and
they want you to give them a mirror so they
can look at their asses in the mirror. Now that
when I was growing up was not something that happened.
Men were not that aware of their bodies. And these
(26:54):
straight guys, who's like, you know, what does my butt
look like? Give me a mirror, And it's interesting the
comfort level. And by the way, men are just as vain,
if not more vain, than women, and I think they
just haven't been given the license to be that way
in the past, and increasingly they are.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I think that's been really exciting to watch and really
exciting to see that change.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And you bring up something else, which has then been
the world we live in, which is.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
This whole sort of cancel culture which bleeds into that,
which bleeds into all these.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Aspects of objectifying. Who feels objectified.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
It's hard as a fashion designer. If you want to
celebrate a certain look or thing, you have to immediately think, Okay,
where did this come from? What culture did this come from?
Will this be considered appropriation when for me it's really celebration.
I mean, there have been collections that I've done in
the past, well not only collections that I've done, but
(27:53):
music that's been created by others, art that's been created
by others that you could not create in today's world
because it would be considered appropriation. So you have to
be very careful. It's affected the way we take pictures,
it's affected the way I design, it's you know, you
scrutinize ideas sometimes before you can even get them off
(28:16):
the ground, which is very hard creatively because I think
the best or for me, the most creative way to
work is to just let loose and just throw everything
out there and then rein it in.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Having lunch with Tom is super special to me. And
Tom is not only one of the most incredible fashion
designers as we all know, but he's an incredible filmmaker.
And Thomas made two Academy Award nominated movies, A Single
Man and Nocturnal animals. So let's get back to the
table and find out what inspires Tom when it comes
(29:10):
to making movies. If you walk through your career or
you know your life, what I know of your early
years and architecture and then going into design and then
you know you're traveling Europe and your success, and then
you go into the movie business, and you know, when
I saw a single.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Man is like a piece of art. It is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Your your your your ability to go from fashion to
creating a film?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Where did that? Where does that come from?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you have these two films that you've done there beautiful?
Are you working on another film? And you also have
my god, you're asking like five questions, and let's go.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Back to where where does it come from? Because I'm
already forgetting what you ask. No, no, no, you can
ask the second one after the first.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
They sort of lead that way. Yes, as you can tell,
I'm very bossy, which right there is a good answer director.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
The word director.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
It's something that comes naturally to me. You know, I
am a creative director. I am used to working with
the very best people in fashion. Let's just say, let's
start with fashion. The very best people you have to
have a vision. You have to know what you want
to say as a fashion designer, but you have to
lead and inspire this group of people. Fashion designer, I
(30:28):
mean you assistant designers, seamstresses, hair and makeup people, lighting people.
You have to get the best out of them. So
you have to inspire them and you know, let them
express themselves. But at the same time you have to
sort of corralat ale and focus it into your vision,
(30:51):
which is in my case, somewhat singular. You know, fashion
is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship. And in the end,
you know, if I design something is because that's exactly
the way I want it. I've been called a control freak.
I hate that word, but I think if my name
is on something, it needs to be exactly the way. Sure,
So yes, others somebody else can say maybe it should
(31:14):
be like this, and I say, no, you should be
like that, or yes, a great idea, right. So the
same is true with film. As a film director, it's
the same process. You have to have a vision, you
have to know what you want to say. You have
to hire the best people, bring out the best in them,
the best actors, the best cinematographer of the best of everything,
(31:35):
but yet you have to steer it all in a
way that expresses your point of view and that you
don't lose. So the process is not dissimilar. Also, the
thing about fashion is we have people don't realize. Fashion
designers have an enormous kind of hard drive loaded with
(31:59):
images from almost every film that's ever been made. You know,
when we start a collection, we pull images from you know,
the twenties, the thirties, the forties, the fifties, the sixties,
and most of them are from film where they're from,
you know, So we have a grasp on culture, contemporary culture,
past culture that I don't think most people realize. And
that's very helpful when you're making a film to have,
(32:21):
you know, to know all of the great you know,
filmmakers that came.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Are there any that you can pull that you say
I loved or her work growing up that influenced you?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (32:32):
God, so many.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
I mean, you know, it's more like pick a decade
and who was your favorite director from that period. You know,
there was a moment and this maybe sounds I don't
know whether this will sound great or not, but there
was a moment in gay culture when it was really
almost part of your responsibility as a gay man or
(32:54):
woman to know every old film that was ever made
and to be able to almost quote them, and that
has been lost often. Now I'll mention to a younger
friend that's gay. Oh you know, blah blah blah, something
Betty Davis said in this film, or so and so
said in that film where you know George. Do you
(33:15):
remember that? Yeah? Yeah, and they don't know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You know, I did not get lost. You're one hundred
percent right, We all knew.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
So we now almost need to teach a gay cultural
history class. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That might be what you do, you know?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Or maybe it's okay that we're losing it, because maybe
it means that that you know that the world is
becoming more homogenized. You can be gay, you can be straight,
you can be Maybe we don't have to, you know,
I look forward to this day when the phrase coming
out of the closet will just completely disappear because you
won't have to come out of a closet because you
would never have been in a closet. And people will say, oh,
(33:55):
it's getting there. You're dating her. Yeah, yeah, well weren't
you dating him, Yes, but we broke up and now
I'm dating her and it's just not even a thought.
So I know I'm rambling, No, you're not right for
the movies we've now gone on to.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
No. But I think I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I think that you know what, what I see with
my nephews and some of their friends who are gay,
is they don't there's no declaration.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
There really is no more declaration.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So I think that one and one of the reasons
I think that is happening is because of our generation,
but specifically people like yourself, who have influenced culture, who
have influenced style, who have brought the sexuality of men
and women and kind of intertwined it. Tom, That's something,
(34:39):
thank you, that a younger generation sees.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So they might not know the Betty Davis line.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
They're looking at your images, your billboards, your commercials, your clothes,
your runway shows, and they're seeing this fluidity.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
That's the thing. After I've been fashion designer for about
thirty five years and I've seen every style and trend
home and go, and it constantly amazes me. You know,
some of my younger assistants in my design studio there
in their early twenties, and they'll come and show me
something that like, yeah, we did that in nineteen eighty eight,
(35:13):
And in my mind it's old because we've already done that,
we did that in nineteen eighty eight, But to them
it's so new. It was done twenty years before they
were born, and they've never seen it before, and they
get so excited. So it's constantly tricky to kind of
keep your mind, at least in fashion. Yeah, so you
have to surround yourself with young assistants to whom all
of these things seem fresh, even though you've seen them
(35:36):
in several incarnations previously.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
When do you know like that it's because you sort
of brought back a seventies vibe for a bit there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, you know, it's interesting because I was talking to
a friend who had just interviewed Georgia Harmani the other day,
and my friend said, and he's a fashion journalist, he said,
you know, if you could live in an era, just stylistically,
what would it be? And I said the nineteen thirties
And he said, that's what Georgia Armani said the other
day when I interviewed him, And I said, well, it's
the same because the early seventies were all about reviving
(36:08):
the nineteen thirties, and then the nineties was my generation
reviving the early seventies. So there and now everyone's reviving
the nineties. So there's a constant revival. But what happens
is it changes each time because our beauty standard changes.
Today's beauty standard is hard and a little meaner and
(36:32):
tougher than it was in the nineteen seventies, where in
the nineteen seventies men and women were kissable. They were
you know, you look at a beautiful woman in a
fashion magazine in the nineteen seventies and just smiling. You know,
women and men in fashion magazines and on the runway
in that period used to smile. I mean Halston shows,
(36:56):
you know, the models twirled down the runway with smile
on their face, laughing, and fashion was joyous. Today every
ad everyone's glaring at you and they're looking for me
and tough or miserable. Those are the ones that kill me.
Where it's like by this really expensive five thousand dollars coat,
and you two can look miserable and mean and depressed.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So anything on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
But you're a couple of things. One is a screenplay
that I finished right before COVID, and another is a
property that I have that I need to get busy
and finish the screenplay on. But I'm only now, as
I said earlier, coming out of a kind of year
long period of readjustment. And before that, Richard was quite ill.
(37:53):
For a few years we had COVID. I didn't feel
very creative.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
No, no, no, I understand that though memo, everything is
still sort of so perfect. I mean, I just you're
you know, you walk into your store here in Los
Angeles and Beverly Hills and it's just your Your line
is just gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What is what is spring?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
What is Oh my god, you're not really going to
do just a little bit, Oh my god, spring, Well
for spring, I take off my jacket and I roll
up my sleeves and that's called spring.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
What is that? What are the colors of spring?
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Oh god, come on, we're not going to talk about fashion.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We're not going to talk about We're done with fashion.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Not that I don't love fashion, I do, but I
think it's because it's my well, what would.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
You describe my fashion?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
You take more fashion risks than most men. I know, really,
I think of you as very definitely a fashion consumer,
which is great because I know you wear a lot
of my clothes, but they look good on you. You know,
you take care of yourself, you know what works on you,
(39:10):
you know what colors look great on you. You're not
afraid to take risks, and so I would say you
are the perfect male customer. I'm not just saying that
because I'm sitting here having lunch with you being recorded,
but actually it's true.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I however, because I work in fashion, and by the way,
look at the runways and see what most fashion designers
come out in at the end of the show. Most
male fashion designers are in a pair of jeans with
a pair of trainers, with a T shirt or something
like that. Because all day long we spend time looking
at clothes, and it's we're in fittings, we're looking at fabrics,
(39:50):
we're looking at colors, and I think it's very hard
to turn that back upon myself. I do it more
in evening. You know, in LA don't wear evening clothes
very much unless you're on a red carpet in London,
for example. Though you know I would be in a
tuxedo a couple of nights a week, and there are
restaurants where you still have to wear a tie and
(40:12):
you have to have on a jacket. And so you
open a closet where I have evening clothes, and I
probably have, you know, twenty different evening jackets, whereas per
day I have a row of black suits or jeans.
You know, I have sort of two looks. I have
a look that I grew up in Santa Fe and
I still wear. You've probably seen me in it, you know,
(40:34):
beaten up jeans and nim shirt, a pair of boots.
So I sort of have two uniforms and one is
a suit. And you know, Jack, one of his teachers
called me in a year or two ago and said,
you know, we have a problem. And I said what
And she said, well, Jack is telling some of the
other boys that they're tacky. We're wearing shorts to school.
(40:58):
And I said, well, I really don't think shorts should
be allowed at school. I mean, Jack wears jeans and
a T shirt.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I love that about Jack, and I agree it's all
he does.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
But all of his friends wear shorts. It's like Jack,
you can wear shorts on the tennis. Sure, you can
wear shorts at home, you can wear shorts on vacasion,
you can wear swim shorts in the pool, but no,
you really shouldn't go to school in shorts.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I have the same feeling, and I why have that
thing about men and sneakers that that were You should
wear shoes, You should wear loafers when you're in you know,
when you go out. Like so when I was in
COVID and I got up and I get just every day,
like I was leaving the house, but I was just
walking down to my office and Brian would be like,
(41:43):
where are you going? She'd hear click click click click,
and he I'm like, I'm just going down the.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Hall click click click click like a.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Heel, mister Ford, and never take it for granted spending
time with Tom, and I hope you've all enjoyed today's lunch.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Tom is incredibly.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Generous, he's loving, he's a reverent, he's kind. But it
doesn't always come without some anxiety. So let's talk a
little bit more with mister Ford to see how he
gets through the night.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Life inspires me and usually this will sound crazy, but
that comes from problems, meaning the things that wake me
up in the middle of the night. Are things that
are not working in my life, things that I need
to improve, things that I need to be You know,
I'm crazy. I'll wake up the middle of a not
obsessing about something. But what that usually tells me is, oh,
(42:44):
there's not a solution here. Now. It'll sound trite to
pull that back into clothing, but often people will say
to me, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Do you wear all your own clothes?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
And I say, well, of course, because if there's something
I need, if there's some thing I want and I
don't make it, then that means all right, there's a
niche in the market that's inspiring to me, and then
I design whatever it is. So life is what's inspiring
moving through life when you encounter I'm very practical. You
encounter something you don't have, you invent it, you fix it,
(43:18):
you make it, you know. And so so life for
me is a little can be a little tortured, and
I think for those around me can be very tortured
because no matter what, I never stop, it's never perfect,
it's never finished, it's never corrected. You know, I'll see
a new flaw, I'll have to repair it. I'll have
to fix it. I have to create it. It's constant,
(43:40):
and that I think is part of being a designer.
I mean, you're designing, and you know all the things
that you're doing are supposed to make life better. It's
supposed to make life more beautiful, more pleasant, more comfortable.
That's what we do. And so the things that wake
me up in the middle of the night are usually
things that are torturing me. Richard used to say, you know,
(44:01):
why are you thinking about this. It's not important. Yes,
it is important. We have to redo that. So far,
it's the wrong shade. It doesn't work with a carpet.
That gray is too cold and the carpet is a
warm gray. We have to fix it. Is driving me crazy,
you know, obsessing, and you know I'm fortunate enough to
(44:22):
be able to obsess about things. A lot of people aren't,
but I am, so I'm very lucky in that way.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
It's so meaningful to me that you join me today.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I love you so much for so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I think that what I know about Tom Ford is
you know, your sense of humor, your generosity, and.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
I can be much more wicked when wow, when we're not.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Being dirty together. We are just very we're dirty.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Well yeah, well I think so.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
But I just want to thank you very much for
joining me today at the table.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I hope this was not as painful as you thought
it was going on.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Oh it wasn't painful at all, and it was a
great pleasure, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Table for two with Bruce Bozzi is produced by iHeartRadio
seven three seven Park and Air Maryland. Our executive producers
are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is
researched and written by Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are
Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's la production
team is Danielle Romo and Lorraine viz. Our music supervisor
(45:34):
is Randall poster.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kanter, Graber, Barbara and Jen and Jeff Klein, and
the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
Sunset Tower Hotel. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Hey, everybody, welcome back. You're listening to Table for two.
This is Bruce Bosi and we are at the Sunset
Tower on a beautiful October day past.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh you're doing you're doing your voice. Wow, it's a
whole lunch radio voice.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And we're sitting at a specific table that I think
is the most elegant, glamorous, well let table.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
In the room.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And there's a reason for it, and it's the Tom
Ford table because today we're having lunch with the man himself,
Tom Ford. Our conversation was recorded back in October, before
the two point eight billion dollar sale of Tom's company
to Estay Lauder was announced, So while we don't talk
much about that.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Change, we do cover the things that made that brand.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Such a success, elegance, beauty, and layer. Speaking of which
Tom's wearing a black suit and a white shirt.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Big change.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
It's what I always I love that your cuffs are
not buttoned.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh yes, it's my casual look.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
This is Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast Table
for two.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
You have to know this about Tom.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So Tom and I had the pleasure of our children
going to the same school at a certain period of time,
so I drop off and Tom would be dropping his
son off at school, as I would might be dropping
my daughter off, and oftentimes I'd turn the corner and
at eight o'clock in the morning, this is what you
look like.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh, because it's easy, you know. I think people think, oh,
a suit's so fancy, blah blah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Blah a suit.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
A suit is so easy, you know, you don't have
to think. And I wear the same not the same
exact suit. I have probably ten of them that are
just copies of each other. But I think it's important
in love to figure out what you look good in,
what you feel comfortable in. You know, you don't need
to change your style or your fashion just because fashion changes,
(02:16):
you know. I think the most iconic people in the
world are when you think about, you know, what someone
looks like. You think about icons. I mean, for example,
they don't usually change their style.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, it can be a good example of that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Let me finish, No, it was interrupted by food.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Unfortunately for Tom. Food came. Even though you know this
is about lunch.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I know, but it's not about lunch. It's about talking.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And I was.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
In fact, I never have lunch. I never go out
to lunch.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I'm very honor.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You usually don't even eat at my desk. If I'm
in the office and I smell food, I'm like, who's
eating food? Dinner is different, you know, dinner's fine, but lunch.
It interrupts my day. It interrupts my way of thought.
I don't like going out in the daytime past a
certain age. Nobody looks good in overhead overhead daylight speaking,
(03:08):
don't I think we're at Tom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
We are at the Tower Bar, which is a very
very beautiful, elegant restaurant, very Hollywood. Jeff Clin's done an
incredible Jeff Clin owns the place, and we're at Tom's table,
and Tom.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
We are at my table, although I never sit here
in the day as I only sit here at night.
And I'm so crazy that I had them black out
the overhead spotlight at my table. There's an overhead light
at every other table. They put candles at mine. But
I won't sit with an overhead light because nobody looks
(03:44):
good with an overhead light. You get shadows over your eyes,
you get shadows, you know, shadows everywhere. Even if you're young,
you don't look great with the overhead light, So avoid
it at all.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Costs, so go back.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You were telling me, well, way, don't want to talk
about lighting, because you know we were at your house
the other Oh my god, and I was watching you
get dressed, and you don't have proper lighting in your bathroom.
I don't know how you do it. Because someone once said,
or I read, or I don't know, some famous decorator
or famous vain person that lighting a bathroom is all
(04:16):
about lighting the face. And it's true. You know, a
powder room's different. It's for guests, it's evening. You know
that needs to be sexy, sensual, not overly lit. But
your bathroom, I mean you've got to be throwing light
on your face and again after a certain a Bruce,
(04:38):
you need a magnifying mirror because I think if you
can make yourself look great with a mirror magnifying your
face and a really bright light, you know you're gonna
look good when you go.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
So I had one.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I had the magnifying your not the light, and Tom
was helping me get ready and a photo shoot that
Tom was art directing, which was really great. We had
a really wonderful afternoon, but you had to put You
kind of taught me a little bit about men's makeup.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know, a little putting.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Which makeup, let's call it grooming groom, which, by the way,
you know, isn't It's just to make your skin look better,
especially when you're having you know, a photograph done. But
I mean I could talk about that for for well,
because there are all sorts of tricks you know, which
you learn well, you learn when you today. Know, if
(05:27):
you've ever done a you know, a talk show or
something like that, the makeup artist will put matt powder
under your eyes because light bounces off of slick, shiny surfaces.
So if there's something matt under your eyes, a light
can't bounce off of it, and underneath your eyes look
(05:48):
dead smooth. So you know, again, past a certain age underneath.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Of your you know, the part underneath you know, I'm
past that certain age is about thirty No I'm kidding,
I'm kidding, good kiddy, And then you told me that
fifty five it gets you get to that next Well, no, no,
I'm sixty one. So I mean, if you can, everyone
knows what you did like. This is not what sixty
one looks like. This is certainly not what sixty one.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Someone said to me the other day. You know, Oh, sixties,
the new fifty, and seventies, the new sixty, but eighty
is still eighty and it's kind of true.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yes, Lighting, you taught me a little bit about grooming
and evening out my skin, and I get it. So
I used to see Tom at school because we have kids.
So tell me how's fatherhood been, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
What it was?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh, fatherhood is amazing this.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Year, I want to send my condolences. I love.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I used to see Richard in the morning, in the
afternoons picking up Jack, and.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
We were together for thirty five years. And it's been hard.
It's been about a year now and only now am
I actually able to really start seeing a future, seeing
a third act hopefully in my life, both you know,
professionally and personally. It's been hard, and I've really just concentrated.
(07:24):
I mean, you know, when I say it's been hard,
a lot of other people have had to go through this.
So I realized that it's part of life, losing someone
that you love and someone that you've been with for
a long time. But I've concentrated the year really on
keeping Jack, my son's life as normal, you knows as
it could be because it was very traumatic for him too,
(07:48):
to lose his father, you know, right before he turned nine,
and that was that was hard. Oh yes, kids, I'm
trying to keep cutting you off. I have a feeling
where both people that like to talk a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
We all know, we go all over it.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But but but back to that. When I was about
to have Jack, a therapist said to me, you know,
having a child is the most selfish thing in the
world that you can do. But raising a child is
the most self less thing that I've never heard of.
And it's true because you know, the world is where
(08:27):
there are plenty of people on the planet. So having
a child and saying, you know, I want to bring
another creature into existence could be considered somewhat selfish. But
raising a child indeed is self less. And you know,
I'm sure a lot of people listening to this have kids,
and you know that, you know, you know that it's selfless.
(08:49):
You do you give up.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yourself, it's the you know, the minute you hold that baby.
The daunting responsibility. Just that overwhelmed me at least was
like wow, like everything is now changed and everything is
about ava and it is not easy. Now I'm getting
into the high school years. So it's a little bit
(09:12):
more about me.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Oh, I was desperate to talk about the baby crib
in your bathroom for a year or two. So there's
your bathrooms the size of a basket.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Brian and I.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So when we have a bedroom that had two bathrooms
and wh ava was small, we made one of the
bathrooms her room.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
The bathrooms, as I said, they're the size of most
people's living room.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know that is t M I you can editing.
That's fun. So let's talk about beauty. Let's talk about yes, beauty,
and there's so much going on, no are we No?
I mean I said Tom, Tom smells so good.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
What I'm wear.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Which is one of my fragrances, I take on a beldejour,
which is a Catherine Deneuve was in and Boudegeor is
the mask version. It's a very somewhat classic fragrance that
when I was developing it, I sort of was thinking, Okay, well,
if carry Grant we're alive today, what kind of fragrance
(10:21):
would he'd be wearing. So it's more classic than a
lot of my other frame is that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The one of the first things you notice about someone
when you see scent like that it smells scent?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Is that their eyes? It's their shoes? Like what what gus?
The team?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It's eyes. It's not shoes, its eyes.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
What do you what do you see? You're talking about
the color of the eyes.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Nose has nothing to do with the color. Yeah, it's
something in people's faces. I'm closing my eyes while I
talk to you because I often close my eyes when
I talk because I can I can concentrate and focus. No,
when I say eyes, I guess it's expression. You know,
some people just look behind and other people just look
(11:03):
like jerks, and often it proves to be true. So
it's something about people's faces. And if they have a
kind face, I noticed that, or you know, an intelligent face.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, yeah, I think it's important because I have the
gift of having lunch with town four to talk about
the gift.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You can have lunch with me anytime where we actually.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Eat, because neither one of us are eating because I'm
I dare not eat as now that I know you.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Can eat, it will just make chewing nor.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I know, I know, well you know, I guess the
beauty secret.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I guess that's not really what I'm so interesting, But like,
there seems to be a whole movement about and they
call it that I think anti anti aging, but that's
even not a good term. Like what people are doing
now to sort of age gracefully beautifully.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
It's so interesting You want to talk about beauty so
much because it's so I mean, obviously I'm in the
beauty business, and of course, you know, I can tell
you lots about different kinds of skincare, different kinds of
makeups or all the makeup or you know, tricks to
look better. But for me, that's so much not what
life is about. What is like, it's so funny. I
(12:13):
often go to parties and people will actually want to
have a serious conversation with me about moisturizer, and I'm like,
what are you talking about? Were you talking about moisturizer?
Let's talk about politics or what you're doing, or the
latest film you've seen, or we get there.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
We touch upon me.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, well okay, what's going on? Just right now?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
No?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
No, no, just it with beauty that you're like, okay, this.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is people are injecting way too many things.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Let's talk about the procedures.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, let's talk about facial dysmorphia, because I think a
lot of people You look at a lot of celebrities
now and you just think, oh my god, what do
they see when they look in the mirror. They don't
even look like themselves any longer, And it is truly dysmorphia.
I think a lot of these people lose touch with
(13:05):
who they were. They see a line and they think
they have to fill it. They see a wrinkle and
they've got to fill it. They see someone else's mouth
and they think they need to have that. And I
think it is a problem culturally for us. I think,
you know, everything has to be done in moderation, and
it's very hard, I think, to maintain your eye and
(13:27):
realize that, okay, well you do have to age. That
is it looks odd sometimes when people literally don't age.
I just don't want to get into specifics about who
who looks great, who doesn't look great. Well, Well, for me,
I have a good friend, well Ali McGraw, who's a friend,
and she looks incredible. She's in her mid eighties and
(13:50):
she's beautiful, absolutely beautiful right, and has not done anything
to herself. Oh, she takes care of herself, you know.
I think a certain point you have to give up
trying to be best in show and settle for best
in class. And so if you're a certain age, look
the best you can possibly look that age. Take care
(14:12):
of yourself, eat well, exercise. It's all those same old
things you hear about. You got to exercise, you gotta
eat well, You've got to take care of yourself.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And that's true.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Welcome back to table for two.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I am having an incredible time here at the Sunset
Tower with Tom Ford. And since we're not eating right now,
I'm wondering when does Tom have lunch?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So you you don't eat except for dinner.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I actually do eat lunch, but I don't go out
to lunk going out to lunch, and I never go
to lunch parties. You know, during Oscar Week, a very
good friend of ours always has a lunch party.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
And I know go during the day as well.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
During the day breaks up my day, ruins whatever I'm
working on that day. I don't drink. So you go
to a lunch party, people are drinking, they get sloppy.
It's you know, okay, I just want to get on
with my day and dinner. I've been to your house
and you eat. It's super clean, very fish, a lot
of fish. I was vegan for a few years and
(15:35):
now I eat fish as well.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So is that the kind of so you prefer entertaining
at home and being sort of in control of the food.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Well, I started entertaining or having people over for dinner
a lot during Richard's illness because he really couldn't go out.
So for the last five years we've pretty much just
had people to our house for dinner. Now I'm realizing, oh,
there are restaurants, I can go out, I can go
(16:04):
out with friends, and so I've been doing that a
lot more.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Are you are people? If I'm allowed to ask asking
you out on date? Because I know a lot of
people that want to ask.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Around a date, it's good.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Really, No no one has ah.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And that's surprising.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, well I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm only now even starting to think about that and
maybe starting to be able to well, as I said,
to think about it. But no no one ever comes
on to me, No one ever asks me out.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That is that's shame, But okay, I got it. Do
you think it's because of like there's an austereness about you?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Because of austere you know probably I don't know, you know,
I think I'm actually a very shy person. I don't
know that, you know, most people would believe that. But
I think sometimes when you're very shy, you can see
aloof right, and it's really a defense to just kind of,
you know, maintain a story. And I'm very formal person.
(17:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
You are a.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Formal person, well meaning that it takes a while, you know,
but by the way Europeans are, and I've lived in.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Europe for thirty years or.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
More, and Europeans are by nature much more formal than Americans.
You know, especially in California, people hug you immediately, and
you know, you waiter, I'll come over and tell you
his name, what his favorite food is on the menu,
ask you personal questions. And it's very very odd to me.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I mean, your hardline at a dinner party when we've
hosted them, when you as like the whole spousal thing,
separate spouses.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh my god, you have to. I mean, yeah, I'm
old fashioned, you know. I believe if you go to
a dinner party, you cannot sit spouses next to each other.
You have to split them up that way when they
go home and get into bed. They've got a lot
of things to gossip about. Oh my god, that woman
who said next to me she was a nightmare, she
was horrible. Really, well, you didn't have to sit next
to him, Wow, he was so boring. No, yes, And
(18:05):
did you see what she had on? You know, if
you're sitting next to your spouse, you don't get to
do that.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
You don't know, and it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's the point of a dinner party is to meet
new people, or to at least be able to talk
to people you don't talk to every day.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You bring up La, so I associate you because New York.
You're not done yet. I think you're completing your work
on Houstin's townhouse.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
That is, let's call it my townhouse. Yes, formerly it belonged.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
To all we have New York London.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I actually was in that. I was in that house
when I was eighteen. I was dating someone who worked
for Anti World at the factory and went by I
probably would have been nineteen seventy nine to pick someone
up before we went out, and I walked.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Into that house and I was just like wow, really.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And so it's amazing that to me that I own
that house now.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And yeah, the beautiful thing about life.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I mean like that. Yeah, if you live long enough
you get to have.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Those are you? Are you keeping it in that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Sort of I actually put it back to the way
that it looked. It was designed by an architect called
Paul Rudolph, who was the dean of architecture at Yale.
And there's a long story to that I won't bore
your listeners with, but he redesigned the house for Halston.
It wasn't designed originally for Halston, redesigned it for him
(19:31):
when he moved in in nineteen seventy four, and then
it was owned after that by Johnny Annelli and Gunter
Sachs and it had been ripped apart sadly, and so
I have basically put it back the way it was
because it was pretty. It was pretty perfect.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Yeah, how cool.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
But I mean, but that's sort of like your thumb
print on so many things. You bring back, you make
thinks sexy again, you bring things back. What you did,
you know with Gucci, what you've done over the course
of the town Ford, it's certainly my style. Thank you,
You're welcome. We have very specific feelings about our cities.
(20:16):
Tell me about Los Angeles. You're Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I love LA.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I love the sun, I love the palm trees, I
love the climate. I grew up in the American West,
so I love space. I love the history of LA,
you know. But I suppose I maybe live in the
past imagination of the LA or what it was. I mean,
(20:40):
you know of all those film sets, and you know,
and life was never like you saw in the movies
or you saw in press photos from let's say, the
golden age of Hollywood. But that is what is still
in my head. That has nothing to do with the
reality of LA today.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
LA is a very family oriented city. I love it
when Richard was alive, you know, and everyone stays home
in LA. It was one thing to me. Now that
I am single, LA can be a very isolating place.
You know, We're all in our cars. There's not street
life the way there is in other cities like New
(21:21):
York or London, and you can feel very isolated. And
I'm feeling that at this moment and my life. And
I lived in London for more than twenty years and
I've just bought a place there and you did, I did,
and I'm thinking of possibly moving back. Yeah, well I
haven't told my son that yet, so I don't think
(21:42):
he'll be listening.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
To this podcast. Jack.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
He loves anyway, and he grew up there. We're up
there till he was five. He had the most beautiful
English accent, which now sounds very califul.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
You know, he's he's a special, special boy. We're basically neighbors,
and which is like.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Said, neighbors. Now, how many times do we see That's
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And frequently live.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Less than five minutes away from each other and we
see each other, yeah, six times a year. But that's
the way everyone is.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
As much as I would hate you doing that, you're
going to move to New York.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Exactly, but I'm going to move to New York. And
I'm also your daughter doesn't know that, now do they
all know that?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I mean, I have four years, three and a half years,
and I would like a room in your place in London,
like maybe like a downstairs apartment that can just come
and go when I visit.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And I do think London is a great.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
The reason I like London is that it has all
of the I mean, I have a place in New York,
so I'm lucky. I get to go, you know where,
whatever city I want. But what I like about London
and it says all the cultural the features of New York,
but it is a calmer city. If you're in your
(22:58):
house in London, you can hear your clock tick, whereas
in New York you hear a horns home, you've talked to,
you feel the rumble of the way you feel. You
open your door and you're just bombarded. Whereas in London
you can open your door and there's a park in
front of you, or a garden or a you know,
it's a different a different rhythm.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So do you have will this happened soon? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
No, Oh my gosh, what I don't know. I mean,
I'm renovating it now. It'll be done in May, and
we'll certainly spend the summer there.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And so we're thinking, all right, wow or not or not? Well,
you don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
As I said, I love la I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Let me thank you that gosh, you have my mind
going all around.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So you I read something that I thought was super
groovy and cool about you.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
What and if this is true all of it?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Of course, you, when you were a young boy, used
to rearrange your parents furniture, and I think.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
And they let me do it. I think they realized
I could do it better than they could. They went
out to a movie. I grabbed a babysitter or nanny
or whatever was with and I said, all right, we're
moving the sof over here. We're pushing that over there.
And I would say to my mother before she left me,
I going to rearrange the living room when you leave,
and she would say, Okay, go for it, go go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
That is so fun to me.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I think, you know my parents. My mother is
still alive. She lives here in LA and she's great.
But my parents were great. They allowed me to be
creative really in any way that I wanted. They were very,
very supportive always, and I think they knew that I
enjoyed this and that I was good at it, and
(24:43):
so okay, let him do it right.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
That's very special. Do you let that happened with Jack?
No way Jack wanted to change.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
He would be like, well, Jack has his own bedroom
and playroom, and I mean, he can do whatever he
wants in there, but no, can't touch the rest. And
I don't know that I'll ever be able to be
with anyone else romantically maybe yes, but I don't think
I could live with anyone else. I mean, my are
so perfectly. Somebody's gonna come in, so can I put
(25:13):
my grandmother's chest right here?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
And it's like, no, you would be so difficult to
live with.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Just so you know, I'm easy.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
No, from the that side of like putting things down,
like you can't put that there.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Brian's somewhat like that, just not as bad.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I think the only way I could ever live with
someone again was to keep my place, let them keep theirs,
and then we get someplace together. Yeah that is because yeah,
I'm very or they have to just be somebody who
just lets me do it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Like that's you, that's your area.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, you're an incredibly talented art director.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Are you taking photographer? You really should have? Thank you,
You're welcome. One of the things you do really well.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
And I think one of the reasons, like all your
stuff is so sexy, is not just because of you,
but how you present it.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
You've leaned into that, You've leaned in.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
An equal sectionality. I'm an equal opportunity objectifier. Yeah, I
am just as happy to objectify men. You know, in
our culture we objectify women all the time. We have
used nude women or barely clad women to sell products
for years, and I'm glad that finally, you know, they're
(26:31):
you know, we're using men in that same way, and
it's okay now for men to be sexy. So many
straight guys will come to my shop. They're trying on
a pair of pants and they want to turn and
they want you to give them a mirror so they
can look at their asses in the mirror. Now that
when I was growing up was not something that happened.
Men were not that aware of their bodies. And these
(26:54):
straight guys, who's like, you know, what does my butt
look like? Give me a mirror, And it's interesting the
comfort level. And by the way, men are just as vain,
if not more vain, than women, and I think they
just haven't been given the license to be that way
in the past, and increasingly they are.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I think that's been really exciting to watch and really
exciting to see that change.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And you bring up something else, which has then been
the world we live in, which is.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
This whole sort of cancel culture which bleeds into that,
which bleeds into all these.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Aspects of objectifying. Who feels objectified.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
It's hard as a fashion designer. If you want to
celebrate a certain look or thing, you have to immediately think, Okay,
where did this come from? What culture did this come from?
Will this be considered appropriation when for me it's really celebration.
I mean, there have been collections that I've done in
the past, well not only collections that I've done, but
(27:53):
music that's been created by others, art that's been created
by others that you could not create in today's world
because it would be considered appropriation. So you have to
be very careful. It's affected the way we take pictures,
it's affected the way I design, it's you know, you
scrutinize ideas sometimes before you can even get them off
(28:16):
the ground, which is very hard creatively because I think
the best or for me, the most creative way to
work is to just let loose and just throw everything
out there and then rein it in.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Having lunch with Tom is super special to me. And
Tom is not only one of the most incredible fashion
designers as we all know, but he's an incredible filmmaker.
And Thomas made two Academy Award nominated movies, A Single
Man and Nocturnal animals. So let's get back to the
table and find out what inspires Tom when it comes
(29:10):
to making movies. If you walk through your career or
you know your life, what I know of your early
years and architecture and then going into design and then
you know you're traveling Europe and your success, and then
you go into the movie business, and you know, when
I saw a single.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Man is like a piece of art. It is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Your your your your ability to go from fashion to
creating a film?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Where did that? Where does that come from?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you have these two films that you've done there beautiful?
Are you working on another film? And you also have
my god, you're asking like five questions, and let's go.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Back to where where does it come from? Because I'm
already forgetting what you ask. No, no, no, you can
ask the second one after the first.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
They sort of lead that way. Yes, as you can tell,
I'm very bossy, which right there is a good answer director.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
The word director.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
It's something that comes naturally to me. You know, I
am a creative director. I am used to working with
the very best people in fashion. Let's just say, let's
start with fashion. The very best people you have to
have a vision. You have to know what you want
to say as a fashion designer, but you have to
lead and inspire this group of people. Fashion designer, I
(30:28):
mean you assistant designers, seamstresses, hair and makeup people, lighting people.
You have to get the best out of them. So
you have to inspire them and you know, let them
express themselves. But at the same time you have to
sort of corralat ale and focus it into your vision,
(30:51):
which is in my case, somewhat singular. You know, fashion
is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship. And in the end,
you know, if I design something is because that's exactly
the way I want it. I've been called a control freak.
I hate that word, but I think if my name
is on something, it needs to be exactly the way. Sure,
So yes, others somebody else can say maybe it should
(31:14):
be like this, and I say, no, you should be
like that, or yes, a great idea, right. So the
same is true with film. As a film director, it's
the same process. You have to have a vision, you
have to know what you want to say. You have
to hire the best people, bring out the best in them,
the best actors, the best cinematographer of the best of everything,
(31:35):
but yet you have to steer it all in a
way that expresses your point of view and that you
don't lose. So the process is not dissimilar. Also, the
thing about fashion is we have people don't realize. Fashion
designers have an enormous kind of hard drive loaded with
(31:59):
images from almost every film that's ever been made. You know,
when we start a collection, we pull images from you know,
the twenties, the thirties, the forties, the fifties, the sixties,
and most of them are from film where they're from,
you know, So we have a grasp on culture, contemporary culture,
past culture that I don't think most people realize. And
that's very helpful when you're making a film to have,
(32:21):
you know, to know all of the great you know,
filmmakers that came.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Are there any that you can pull that you say
I loved or her work growing up that influenced you?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (32:32):
God, so many.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
I mean, you know, it's more like pick a decade
and who was your favorite director from that period. You know,
there was a moment and this maybe sounds I don't
know whether this will sound great or not, but there
was a moment in gay culture when it was really
almost part of your responsibility as a gay man or
(32:54):
woman to know every old film that was ever made
and to be able to almost quote them, and that
has been lost often. Now I'll mention to a younger
friend that's gay. Oh you know, blah blah blah, something
Betty Davis said in this film, or so and so
said in that film where you know George. Do you
(33:15):
remember that? Yeah? Yeah, and they don't know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You know, I did not get lost. You're one hundred
percent right, We all knew.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
So we now almost need to teach a gay cultural
history class. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That might be what you do, you know?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Or maybe it's okay that we're losing it, because maybe
it means that that you know that the world is
becoming more homogenized. You can be gay, you can be straight,
you can be Maybe we don't have to, you know,
I look forward to this day when the phrase coming
out of the closet will just completely disappear because you
won't have to come out of a closet because you
would never have been in a closet. And people will say, oh,
(33:55):
it's getting there. You're dating her. Yeah, yeah, well weren't
you dating him, Yes, but we broke up and now
I'm dating her and it's just not even a thought.
So I know I'm rambling, No, you're not right for
the movies we've now gone on to.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
No. But I think I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I think that you know what, what I see with
my nephews and some of their friends who are gay,
is they don't there's no declaration.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
There really is no more declaration.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So I think that one and one of the reasons
I think that is happening is because of our generation,
but specifically people like yourself, who have influenced culture, who
have influenced style, who have brought the sexuality of men
and women and kind of intertwined it. Tom, That's something,
(34:39):
thank you, that a younger generation sees.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So they might not know the Betty Davis line.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
They're looking at your images, your billboards, your commercials, your clothes,
your runway shows, and they're seeing this fluidity.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
That's the thing. After I've been fashion designer for about
thirty five years and I've seen every style and trend
home and go, and it constantly amazes me. You know,
some of my younger assistants in my design studio there
in their early twenties, and they'll come and show me
something that like, yeah, we did that in nineteen eighty eight,
(35:13):
And in my mind it's old because we've already done that,
we did that in nineteen eighty eight, But to them
it's so new. It was done twenty years before they
were born, and they've never seen it before, and they
get so excited. So it's constantly tricky to kind of
keep your mind, at least in fashion. Yeah, so you
have to surround yourself with young assistants to whom all
of these things seem fresh, even though you've seen them
(35:36):
in several incarnations previously.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
When do you know like that it's because you sort
of brought back a seventies vibe for a bit there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, you know, it's interesting because I was talking to
a friend who had just interviewed Georgia Harmani the other day,
and my friend said, and he's a fashion journalist, he said,
you know, if you could live in an era, just stylistically,
what would it be? And I said the nineteen thirties
And he said, that's what Georgia Armani said the other
day when I interviewed him, And I said, well, it's
the same because the early seventies were all about reviving
(36:08):
the nineteen thirties, and then the nineties was my generation
reviving the early seventies. So there and now everyone's reviving
the nineties. So there's a constant revival. But what happens
is it changes each time because our beauty standard changes.
Today's beauty standard is hard and a little meaner and
(36:32):
tougher than it was in the nineteen seventies, where in
the nineteen seventies men and women were kissable. They were
you know, you look at a beautiful woman in a
fashion magazine in the nineteen seventies and just smiling. You know,
women and men in fashion magazines and on the runway
in that period used to smile. I mean Halston shows,
(36:56):
you know, the models twirled down the runway with smile
on their face, laughing, and fashion was joyous. Today every
ad everyone's glaring at you and they're looking for me
and tough or miserable. Those are the ones that kill me.
Where it's like by this really expensive five thousand dollars coat,
and you two can look miserable and mean and depressed.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So anything on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
But you're a couple of things. One is a screenplay
that I finished right before COVID, and another is a
property that I have that I need to get busy
and finish the screenplay on. But I'm only now, as
I said earlier, coming out of a kind of year
long period of readjustment. And before that, Richard was quite ill.
(37:53):
For a few years we had COVID. I didn't feel
very creative.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
No, no, no, I understand that though memo, everything is
still sort of so perfect. I mean, I just you're
you know, you walk into your store here in Los
Angeles and Beverly Hills and it's just your Your line
is just gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What is what is spring?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
What is Oh my god, you're not really going to
do just a little bit, Oh my god, spring, Well
for spring, I take off my jacket and I roll
up my sleeves and that's called spring.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
What is that? What are the colors of spring?
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Oh god, come on, we're not going to talk about fashion.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
We're not going to talk about We're done with fashion.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Not that I don't love fashion, I do, but I
think it's because it's my well, what would.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
You describe my fashion?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
You take more fashion risks than most men. I know, really,
I think of you as very definitely a fashion consumer,
which is great because I know you wear a lot
of my clothes, but they look good on you. You know,
you take care of yourself, you know what works on you,
(39:10):
you know what colors look great on you. You're not
afraid to take risks, and so I would say you
are the perfect male customer. I'm not just saying that
because I'm sitting here having lunch with you being recorded,
but actually it's true.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I however, because I work in fashion, and by the way,
look at the runways and see what most fashion designers
come out in at the end of the show. Most
male fashion designers are in a pair of jeans with
a pair of trainers, with a T shirt or something
like that. Because all day long we spend time looking
at clothes, and it's we're in fittings, we're looking at fabrics,
(39:50):
we're looking at colors, and I think it's very hard
to turn that back upon myself. I do it more
in evening. You know, in LA don't wear evening clothes
very much unless you're on a red carpet in London,
for example. Though you know I would be in a
tuxedo a couple of nights a week, and there are
restaurants where you still have to wear a tie and
(40:12):
you have to have on a jacket. And so you
open a closet where I have evening clothes, and I
probably have, you know, twenty different evening jackets, whereas per
day I have a row of black suits or jeans.
You know, I have sort of two looks. I have
a look that I grew up in Santa Fe and
I still wear. You've probably seen me in it, you know,
(40:34):
beaten up jeans and nim shirt, a pair of boots.
So I sort of have two uniforms and one is
a suit. And you know, Jack, one of his teachers
called me in a year or two ago and said,
you know, we have a problem. And I said what
And she said, well, Jack is telling some of the
other boys that they're tacky. We're wearing shorts to school.
(40:58):
And I said, well, I really don't think shorts should
be allowed at school. I mean, Jack wears jeans and
a T shirt.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I love that about Jack, and I agree it's all
he does.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
But all of his friends wear shorts. It's like Jack,
you can wear shorts on the tennis. Sure, you can
wear shorts at home, you can wear shorts on vacasion,
you can wear swim shorts in the pool, but no,
you really shouldn't go to school in shorts.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I have the same feeling, and I why have that
thing about men and sneakers that that were You should
wear shoes, You should wear loafers when you're in you know,
when you go out. Like so when I was in
COVID and I got up and I get just every day,
like I was leaving the house, but I was just
walking down to my office and Brian would be like,
(41:43):
where are you going? She'd hear click click click click,
and he I'm like, I'm just going down the.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Hall click click click click like a.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Heel, mister Ford, and never take it for granted spending
time with Tom, and I hope you've all enjoyed today's lunch.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Tom is incredibly.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Generous, he's loving, he's a reverent, he's kind. But it
doesn't always come without some anxiety. So let's talk a
little bit more with mister Ford to see how he
gets through the night.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Life inspires me and usually this will sound crazy, but
that comes from problems, meaning the things that wake me
up in the middle of the night. Are things that
are not working in my life, things that I need
to improve, things that I need to be You know,
I'm crazy. I'll wake up the middle of a not
obsessing about something. But what that usually tells me is, oh,
(42:44):
there's not a solution here. Now. It'll sound trite to
pull that back into clothing, but often people will say
to me, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Do you wear all your own clothes?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
And I say, well, of course, because if there's something
I need, if there's some thing I want and I
don't make it, then that means all right, there's a
niche in the market that's inspiring to me, and then
I design whatever it is. So life is what's inspiring
moving through life when you encounter I'm very practical. You
encounter something you don't have, you invent it, you fix it,
(43:18):
you make it, you know. And so so life for
me is a little can be a little tortured, and
I think for those around me can be very tortured
because no matter what, I never stop, it's never perfect,
it's never finished, it's never corrected. You know, I'll see
a new flaw, I'll have to repair it. I'll have
to fix it. I have to create it. It's constant,
(43:40):
and that I think is part of being a designer.
I mean, you're designing, and you know all the things
that you're doing are supposed to make life better. It's
supposed to make life more beautiful, more pleasant, more comfortable.
That's what we do. And so the things that wake
me up in the middle of the night are usually
things that are torturing me. Richard used to say, you know,
(44:01):
why are you thinking about this. It's not important. Yes,
it is important. We have to redo that. So far,
it's the wrong shade. It doesn't work with a carpet.
That gray is too cold and the carpet is a
warm gray. We have to fix it. Is driving me crazy,
you know, obsessing, and you know I'm fortunate enough to
(44:22):
be able to obsess about things. A lot of people aren't,
but I am, so I'm very lucky in that way.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
It's so meaningful to me that you join me today.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I love you so much for so many reasons.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I think that what I know about Tom Ford is
you know, your sense of humor, your generosity, and.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
I can be much more wicked when wow, when we're not.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Being dirty together. We are just very we're dirty.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Well yeah, well I think so.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
But I just want to thank you very much for
joining me today at the table.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I hope this was not as painful as you thought
it was going on.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Oh it wasn't painful at all, and it was a
great pleasure, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Table for two with Bruce Bozzi is produced by iHeartRadio
seven three seven Park and Air Maryland. Our executive producers
are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is
researched and written by Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are
Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's la production
team is Danielle Romo and Lorraine viz. Our music supervisor
(45:34):
is Randall poster.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kanter, Graber, Barbara and Jen and Jeff Klein, and
the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
Sunset Tower Hotel. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Host
Bruce Bozzi
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!