Ford has become a toned down but more elegant version of his old self and now creates clothes with a gloss of understatement, which is more that can be said for the opinions he expressed in the London Telegraph.
In an interview with Lisa Armstrong he said, “So many young girls now look like whores” and “I don’t want to be anti-French but there isn’t a more unattractive group of people on the streets” and “Tweeting? It’s one of the silliest things ever.” (Ford says this in the context of how he and his friends invariably discuss how crass the world has become) and “Now, whatever I set out to design, it’s already been done.”
One could paraphrase and say for Ford the fashion world is now a place of pubescent whore manquée, ugly French, crass tweeters, repetitive design and an American that is awash in TV shows with “taste levels so distressing that Ford says he frequently feels like handing back his American citizenship”.
It’s interesting that the Telegraph story also has Ford saying that these days “It’s hard to have the courage of your convictions.” Clearly not.
Irrespective of his invective the fashion world needs Ford now more than ever. In her story Armstrong observes, “Ford’s riotous winter 2013 collection was a deliberate assault on the Céline-inspired minimalism that has ruled the fashion planet, from Cos to Zara.” Here, here – we need less of Philo and more of Ford if fashion has any chance of becoming interesting again.
勇气可嘉
Tom Ford，那个穿著夸张条纹衣服，并将 Gucci 从一个濒临破产的俗丽品牌转变成一个沾满锐气、坐拥十亿欧元品牌的鬼才，自离开 Gucci 之后一直在默默耕耘自家品牌。如今的他神采涣然，其秋冬季男装更满是温润优雅和举重若轻。他在接受《伦敦电讯报》的 Lisa Armstrong 的采访时说，“现在很多年轻女孩子看上去太轻佻狐媚了”，“我并不想反对法国风，但是如今大街上满是东施效颦的人”，“Tweeting？这真是史上最蠢的玩意儿了。”（他和朋友讨论世界怎么糟糕成这样时，Ford 总是这么说），他还说，“现在，无论我设计什么，都已经被设计过了。”换句话说，他认为时装界如今已充斥了撒娇卖痴的艳俗打扮、丑化的法国风、愚蠢的tweeters、重复的设计，并且“TV秀上弥漫了如此低俗的品味，以至于 Ford 经常想退出美国国籍”。不过，这么说也许有些夸张了 Ford 的本意，因为他可能仅仅是心情不太好而已。有趣的是，那篇报导还说，Ford 说，在这个时代，“有勇气坚持自己的信念很难。”虽然 Ford 确实在策划一个走秀表演时作出了这种胆怯的言辞，但显然他本人是具有这种勇气的。无论他如何恶言谩骂，时尚界现在比以往更需要 Ford。在 Armstrong 的报道中，她指出，“一直以来时尚界受 Céline 的极简主义影响太深，波及了从 Cos 到 Zara 的各个层面。Ford 不羁的2013秋冬系列正是对这种泛滥的蓄意攻击”。这可谓一语中的——如果时尚要重新变得有趣起来，我们需要更少的 Philo 和更多的 Ford。顺带一提，他的新春夏系列拥有华丽的剪裁和材料运用上的创新，令人称绝。
