I don't understand all these breasts right now, and they don't look like breasts. They look like someone's taken a grapefruit half and inserted it under your skin. I mean it's - it doesn't even bear any resemblance to what a natural breast looks like. But we're starting to think that this is what women should like. And young girls are looking at these breasts and thinking, oh, I need to go have my breasts done because they've lost touch with what a real breast actually looks like. I find it fascinating, I find it disturbing.
Tom FordI think there's nothing more painful for anyone than unrequited love. If you've ever had that kind of physical access to someone and then, all of a sudden, that is denied, and yet you're still in love with that person, it's very, very, very painful to be around that person in a certain way.
Tom FordIt was like one of those dreams at high school when everyone else has clothes on except you.
Tom FordI probably do have an obsessive personality, but striving for perfection has served me well
Tom FordIf you're at the Oscars, there's not a man on that red carpet who is not wearing make-up. Most straight actors I know get quite used to it. Even when they go out in real life they grab some sort of bronzer and they throw it on. They dye their eyebrows, they dye their lashes - they know the tricks.
Tom FordFashion is very quick. It's very disposable. It's immediately - it tells you exactly where we are in our culture, especially women's fashion.
Tom FordReal fashion change comes from real changes in real life. Everything else is just decoration.
Tom FordI think the 1970s will always be the decade for me. Obviously, I grew up in that era, but the beauty standard was touchable, kissable.
Tom FordFashion is much more collaborative than one might think. You have to have an idea and vision and you have to communicate that vision to a team of people and you have to create an environment that allows those people to give the best that they can give.
Tom FordI guess I'm just one of these people who, when I decide I'm going to do something, I just do it.
Tom FordWhen you are having fun and creating something you love, it shows in the product. So when a woman is sifting through a rack of clothes, somehow that piece of clothing that you had so much fun designing speaks to her she responds to it and buys it. I believe you can actually transfer that energy to material things as you're creating them.
Tom FordA lot of people think a high armhole is restrictive, but it gives you total movement because it's cut right up to your arm.
Tom FordIn fashion as in life, the right thing at the right time is the right thing. The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.
Tom FordIt's really never fair to judge people because none of us know what's going on inside anyone else's head.
Tom FordWhat is important is that we stop and realize, "Okay. This is fine. I can enjoy that. But what is really important, what I'm really going to take away with me from this life, is my connection with other people.
Tom FordWhen I come home I actually take off all my clothes, and I wear no clothes until I leave. I eat naked. I do everything completely naked.
Tom FordI was not good at team sports, I have to say. I'm quite good at individual sports, but I was not good at team sports, so I wasn't good at baseball and football.
Tom FordFirst of all, I love women. But I lust after beautiful women in the way that I lust after a beautiful piece of sculpture - this will probably get me in trouble - or a beautiful car. I believe everyone's on a sliding scale of sexuality. There are moments where I am sexually attracted to women. But it doesn't overpower my first impulse; my lust for them is the same as my lust for beauty in all things.
Tom FordChoose your team carefully. So much of your success is due to the people who you surround yourself with. Your friends, your family, and the people that you work with -- they all play an important role in inspiring you and supporting you and giving you stability. These are the people in your life who will be honest with you.
Tom FordHips are absolutely key to every shape I do, because whatever you do at the top or bottom, you want to keep it slim and narrow on the hips. One thing is for certain: No one, man or woman, wants big hips.
Tom FordI believe in living life the way that you want to live it every day, and if you do that, you don't really need to have New Year's resolutions.
Tom FordI interview these people all the time who come to my office and say, "I want to be a fashion designer." I tell them where they should start, and they say, "I don't want to do that. I don't want to get anyone coffee." Don't they know it is great to get people coffee?
Tom FordFashion is everything. Art, music, furniture design, graphic design, hair, makeup, architecture, the way cars look - all those things go together to make a moment in time, and that's what excites me.
Tom FordA few times in my life I've had moments of clarity where the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think.
Tom FordI think people are sick of trends changing every six months - not because we're tired of them, but just for the sake of change. There is so much junk in the world: junk TV, junk movies, all those junk magazines with the same people on the cover.
Tom FordIf I were straight and I were trying to seduce a woman, I could do it just by standing up at the table when she came back from the bathroom. It works. Every time I do that, all the straight men are sitting at the table and their wives are kicking them. "Look at that!" "You never do that for me!"
Tom FordI swore that I wouldn't be one of those parents who leaves a Bugaboo pram parked in the communal entry hall. Well guess what, ours is there right now.
Tom FordIn another life I would love to be a cosmetic surgeon because it’s architectural. You know, you are trying to figure out where the seams go. Can I do it in one piece like Halston? Can you formaldehyde DNA?
Tom FordI was lucky enough to have had great success early on in life; to have had all the things the material world can offer. And yet, I realized that what I had actually neglected was the more spiritual side of myself, which has always been there. But it's easy for us in our culture to become consumed in a sense by materialism. Now materialism is fine. We live in a material world. I'm not saying that beautiful things don't enhance our lives. But, in our culture, we're never happy.
Tom FordI hate tricky facial hair. If your facial hair is too spotty in places, shave. Just forget about it.
Tom FordIt's funny, our beauty standard has become harder and tougher because we live in a tough age. I don't think anyone wants to walk down the street and feel vulnerable. You want to walk down the street and feel like you're in control.
Tom FordRight now everything is pumped up. Cars look like someone took an air pump and pumped them up. They look engorged. Lips pumped up, breasts pumped up, everything is pumped up. And it's also kind of off-putting. It's sexual but in such a hard way that it's, for me, not sexual at all. Whereas the 1970s, breasts were smaller. People were not wearing bras. Farrah Fawcett's sexuality and sensuality was a very touchable sexuality. She was kissable. She was friendly.
Tom FordBill Sofield has the ability to understand the architecture of a space and how to utilize it in the most beautiful way. He can create completely different styles for his clients based on who they are and what their taste is. Our efforts have always been collaborative, and I value what he brings to the table architecturally and aesthetically.
Tom FordI think that right now we're in a very hard moment and off-putting. I mean, look at shoes today - women's shoes. They couldn't possibly get any higher and meaner and sharper. But then again, you go and watch most films today, they're violent and we're living in a world that is, at the moment, quite hard.
Tom FordI'm a believer in fate and in fulfilling your destiny. I've always had a kind of inner voice that I have learned to listen to.
Tom Ford