Tom Ford Turns 50

“I don’t think of myself as gay. That doesn’t mean that I’m not gay. I just don’t define myself by my sexuality.”

Not only am I inspired by people who, along with tremendous talent, are able to "brand" themselves, but I also want to follow in their footsteps. I have provided past posts that include: Martha Stewart, Andy Warhol & Keith Haring.

I would like to have my own line of products: nipple clamps made from re-purposed office supplies, cocktail mixers, & a magazine- Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Lifestyle. There would be a STEVE! TV network, which would only show films & series re-runs that I appear in, or that I love, or that feature : Steve Allen, Steve Buscemi, Steve Reeves, Steve Carell, or Steve McQueen. I want my own fragrance- Douche by Stephen: nutmeg, whiskey, dirt & a hint of desperation.

Tom Ford has not only made himself a part of his own product, but he is his own muse.

Each time I have come upon a print ad for Tom Ford, a man who has the right stuff & designs beautiful clothing; I have earmarked the magazine ad & said to the Husband- "wow, can you believe how beautiful he is? Plus... the clothing & accessories are gifts from a genius". The Husband concurred.

Ford: "I think I detach the physical from the spiritual. It’s my business to make a woman or a man beautiful, & I’m working with a model in a fitting, & I’ve objectified them to the point that they become an object."

"They’re something that I’m modeling or shaping or sculpting, but I’m very aware that even though I make them physically beautiful, their soul & personality & character is somewhat detached from that. It’s great when you have a combination of the two- that’s what makes a true beauty. Some people are physically beautiful but yet they’re completely uninteresting, & thus they’re not beautiful. I detach the two. ... That’s why I think gay men make better designers."

Today is Tom Ford's 50th birthday. I would be very pleased to be snowed-in at a mountain cabin for a few days with Tom Ford. I would try my best to leave him inspired. He is Daniel Craig's designer of choice, & that is all the endorsement I need. I love you, Tom Ford.... but alas, he has has been with journalist Richard Buckley (14 years his senior) for 25 years. At least he is into a daddy types.

Buckley was the former Editor in Chief of Vogue Hommes International. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1989 & after his recovery the couple moved from NYC to Italy.

The couple have smooth fox terriers. Their first dog- John, lived 14 years with Ford & Buckley, & appeared on the runway & in photo shoots. Currently, they have Angus & India, who are 6 & 4 years old. These terriers appeared in Ford's film A Single Man. I am grateful to Mr. Ford for his 1st film- A Single Man. It was, for me, a masterful directorial debut & a deeply moving film.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Carlyle Ford, have your people call my people.

Born On This Day- August 1st... Designer Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Lauren was born in Algeria & raised in France. He was bullied at school, but found solace at home in his drawing & painting & designing of dresses for his mother & sisters.

When he was 17 & studying in Paris, Saint Lauren won 1st prize in a dress design competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat.

When Christian Dior saw Saint Laurent's designs, he was so impressed that he offered the young man a job as an assistant & & referred to Saint Laurent as the 'dauphin'. When Dior died in 1957, Saint Laurent took over the house of Dior. His first collection for Dior in 1958 was greeted enthusiastically & his 1960 collection for Dior appropriated the Left Bank style, with black leather jackets, knitted turtlenecks, & crocodile jackets. The fashion world watched with fascination as street fashion was redesigned at the hands of a couturier.

In the same year Saint Laurent was called up to fight in the Algerian war. When he was discharged several months later, he discovered that he had been replaced as head designer at Dior. He then simply created his own company.

Under his own name, Saint Laurent continued to produce elegant wearable clothes that drew on a huge range of influences & he successfully tapped into the vogue for androgynous dressing that spread throughout Europe & the USA in the mid-1960s.

In 1993, Yves Saint Laurent , which was by now also a major perfume house, was sold to a major company & has changed hands a number of times since, becoming part of Gucci in 1999 with Tom Ford as designer & creative director.

In 1958, Saint Laurent met Pierre Bergé, who was at the time the manager & lover of the Parisian painter Bernard Buffet. In a scene out of A Little Night Music, at a weekend party Buffet met his future wife, & Saint Laurent & Bergé roused a romance that lasted until 1976. After their breakup Bergé continued to serve as Saint Laurent's business manager & remained living in their home until 1986.

Although his sexuality was hardly a secret in the fashion world, Saint Laurent did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality until 1991, in an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

As his depression deepened Saint Laurent was joyful only twice a year, on the days a new collection was shown, usually to wild acclaim & within 24 hours that joy would evaporated. Saint Laurent was so attached to his favorite designs, that to part with even one of them would leave a black hole in his life, according to Bergé.

Almost any other leading designer will cite him as their idol. Marc Jacobs refers to him as god. Tom Ford & Jean-Paul Gaultier name him as their mentor.

In 2002, with years of poor health, drug abuse, depression, alcoholism, criticisms of YSL designs, Saint Laurent was forced to face the indignity of having Gucci close the illustrious couture house of YSL.

After his retirement, Saint Laurent became increasingly reclusive & spent the last years of his life at his house in Marrakech, Morocco. He died in June 2008 after a long illness. He was 71 years old.

Etiquette According To Tom Ford

Waiting to have my haircut by Darleen at 7 Bucks A Whack, I passed up the current edition of Maxim for last month's Interview with Tom Ford. I was gobsmacked to learn this tid-bit:
"When I come home...I wear no clothes until I leave. I eat naked. I do everything completely naked."

Thanks, Mr. Ford! I have not been able to think of anything else for hours.

In the interview in Interview, Ford gave some tips on being a modern gentleman:

“Putting your best foot forward when you step outside each day to greet the world. It’s a show of respect to others around you. 

 “You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged & you have to be contributing to the world.”

“Manners are very important & actually knowing when things are appropriate. I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they’re walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at & leave the dinner table.”

“True gentleman are not pretentious, racist or judgmental.” 

 “Gentleman should not wear shorts or flip-flops in the city. Flip-flops are for the beach & shorts are for the tennis court."

Born On This Day- August 27th... Designer & Stephen's Secret Lover- Tom Ford

Not only am I inspired by people who, along with real talent, are able to "brand" themselves, but I want to follow in the footsteps of past blog posts: Martha Stewart, Andy Warhol & Keith Haring. Tom Ford has not only made himself a part of his own product, but he is his own muse. Every time I have come upon a print ad for Tom Ford, who is truly talented & designs beautiful clothing; I have earmarked the magazine ad & said to the Husband- "wow, can you believe how beautiful & hot he is? Plus... the clothing & accessories are amazing". The Husband concurred. Today is Tom Ford's birthday. I would be very pleased to be snowed-in at a mountain cabin for a few days with Tom Ford. I would try my best to leave him inspired. He is Daniel Craig's designer of choice, & that is all the endorsement I need. I love you, Tom Ford.... but alas, he has has been with partner Richard Buckley (14 years his senior) for 23 years. At least he needs a "daddy".

I am grateful to Mr. Ford for his 1st film- A Single Man. It was, for me, a masterful directorial debut. Happy Birthday, Tom. Have your people call my people.

A Single Man

The Husband & I do not often have a day off together, & so yesterday, I took a day off work so that we could have a nice Wednesday of connecting with a movie & lunch. So civilized & restrained, sort of like George Falconer, the English literature professor at a Los Angeles college in the early 1960s, who is adrift in a world of sun dappled Southern California sensuality. The rose blossoms blaze with surreal heat; & the bored students in his classroom are achingly pretty. George, a dapper, & because it is 1962- a closeted gay man, sees it all through eyes clouded with grief & loneliness. A late night a phone call announced the death of his longtime partner in a car crash. The voice (in a nice touch, the voice belongs to Mad Men’s Jon Hamm) on the line explained that George is excluded from the funeral. It's "for family only." Pain creases George's face but his voice remains steady. The tears don't begin until the phone is hung back up.




"Just get through the goddamn day," George tells himself next morning in the bathroom mirror. He dresses in his fastidiously, impeccable suite & tailored shirt. He heads to work with a loaded revolver in his briefcase. He's all dressed up with nowhere to go. A Single Man is the first film directed by fashion icon Tom Ford. It is as gorgeous as you would expect, & surprisingly heartfelt. Dan Bishop's lush production design & cinematographer Eduard Grau's inventive visuals, make every single frame is as sleek as a page from a 1962 GQ layout. The surface effects contribute to the emotionally complex story. Grau's palette shifts from monochromes to vibrant colors depending on George's moods. All the urgent passion he cannot show is expressed in turns of the color wheel. Abel Korzeniowski's score is haunting, evocative of passion & loss.


Adapted from Christopher Isherwood's novella (which reads as an interior monologue), with minimal narration & masterful film technique, Ford tells the story sensitively, but not solemnly. There is dry humor in George's suicidal demeanor. Clocks tick like the toll of funeral chimes, but George’s life keeps handing him reasons to carry on. His attempts to kill himself are continually frustrated. He can't get the bed pillows arranged quite right so as not to make a mess, or there's a distracting knock at the door, or a dinner invitation from his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore), another British expatriate who likes her martinis ("Tanqueray, I like the color of the bottle”), gossip & Booker T's Green Onions on the turntable. George is unsure how to handle the insistent advances of a handsome, sexy, enigmatic student (Nicholas Hoult, the little lad from "About a Boy," all grown up & hunky) & a Spanish would be James Dean (Jon Kortajarena) who tries to hustle him in a parking lot. George's lust & lust for life keep engaging him.


The Husband & I have always championed Colin Firth as an actor. We think he is the best Mr. Darcy ever. Firth is amazing & deeply moving as George. This is his finest performance in a long career of 1st rate work. Gay professional men in the 1960s couldn't wear their hearts on their sleeves. Firth captures George's repression & wounded dignity in a very still performance with deep undercurrents of feeling. His boozy dinner scene with Moore is the film's highlight. Charley & George shared a long ago fling & she still carries a torch for him. The tension between her fiery neurosis and his icy decorum sizzles when they reminisce, flirt & fight as old friends do. It's one of those rare, rich scenes where we have the feeling of eavesdropping on actual friends rather than watching a performance.


It is 1 day later & I can’t shake this film & all of it’s small telling moments: 3 “bad girls” in leather jackets & beehive hair, smoking cigs in the parking lot of the college, the smog pink sky & giant billboard for Psycho at the liquor store parking lot, a scene where George smells the face of a pretty terrier in a parked car, the pretty little neighbor girl who tells George that her father thinks that he is “a little light in the loafers” in a scene at the bank. I was stunned by the film’s beauty & craft, & deeply moved by George’s journey through 1 day, a day he plans to be his last. The Husband smartly remarked- “the moral seems to be: life can be made worth living again by a hot, thin young man with a fine ass.” I think Colin Firth can start practicing some award speeches. Interestingly, I felt that the film took place close to New Years Eve, as George & Charlie discuss resolutions & the neighbors have a large party. Hmmm.

Fall Movie Preview- A Single Man

I have really been looking forward to designer & my occasional lover-Tom Ford's debut as a film director & if the movie is even close to as engrossing & artful as the trailer, I will in for an emotion ride akin to Todd Hayne's brilliant Far From Heaven. I love that this trailer does not spell out the entire movie & have give-aways of the high points. I have seen trailers where I have thought- "great, now I don't actually have to see the entire film. Thanks!". This film looks to be a visual feast.

A Single Man is based on a story by Christopher Isherwood. Set in LA during the era of Mad Men, it follows a single day in the life of of an English college professor- George (Colin Firth) who is trying to find meaning in his life after the death of his long time partner-Jim (Matthew Goode). He has a series of encounters, including being consoled by his best friend Charley (the beautiful & fabulous Julianne Moore), he is being stalked by one of his students (Nicholas Hoult), & he meets an intriguing Spaniard (Lee Pace). Wow.