At 43, Ford, who makes cracks about his age, is definitely in the mood for something different, and not just in his career. Once known for refusing to travel with more than a carry-on, he now admits to "lots of suitcases. I've gotten older, and I'm really a clotheshorse." He has also given up his beloved McDonald's quarter pounders with cheese. "My body's changed," he says. "I'm fighting it." And he recently sold his Victorian house in London (he's restoring a Georgian townhouse there), with plans to sell an apartment in Paris and a house in Santa Fe: "I'm ready to move on."
He's ready now, but only after bringing some "cathartic" closure to his years in fashion. "I couldn't do anything else until I'd relived it," he says. So he put together a 416-page coffee-table book simply titled Tom Ford, due Nov. 1. It features photos of runway shows, ad campaigns and the red carpet, where Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz and Halle Berry are just a few of the stars who showed off his Gucci-and YSL-designed clothes to great effect. Indeed, Ford, whom Kate Beckinsale calls "cool and cultured," won not only critical raves for his sensuous designs but also the adoration of Hollywood's elite, which is apparent in the book. "He makes women feel confident and sexy," says Mischa Barton. Or, as Stella McCartney puts it, "He kicks ass."
Still, despite his success and acclaim, Ford ended his 10 years as Gucci's creative director in April, after he couldn't agree with the parent company on terms for a new contract.
At the time, he made no secret of his desire to get into the movie business. Though he has ideas for starting his own label, what Ford really wants to do is...direct. The Texas native, who acted in commercials in his teens, is now trying to buy the rights for a novel and for a '30s film based on a play, neither of which he'll name. His search for a screenplay hasn't gone so well. "I read every spec script out there," he says, but "nothing that was right for me." So he did what any enterprising actor turned star designer would do—he wrote his own. "There are certain midlife elements to it," he says. "It's still in its early stages. It's probably terrible." Though he won't reveal the plot, he says if s not about fashion—or sex. "I'm so much more romantic than most people would think," says Ford, who met his partner, Vogue Hommes International editor Richard Buckley, 56, at a fashion show in New York City. "I've been with the same person for 18 years. To me, human relationships and hoping to connect with someone you love is the thing in life that keeps everybody going."
For Ford, that may even mean fatherhood. "I would like to have kids," he says. "I'm still thinking about it." He's loath to rule anything out. "I just don't want to wake up one day and say, 'God, I really should have tried that.' I will fail or I won't, but I will have tried."
Jennifer Wulff. Courtney Rubin and Monique Jessen in London and Marisa Laudadio in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Courtney Rubin,
- Monique Jessen,
- Marisa Laudadio.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
