Tom Ford (Hardcover)

~ Tom Ford (Author), Bridget Foley (Author), Graydon Carter (Introduction), Anna Wintour (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This enormous compendium may be Ford's swan song as a designer, as he recently announced that he was quitting fashion to direct movies. But for the last 10 years, as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, he took the brands in fresh directions. This huge, slipcased Festschrift checks in at 11"×14", and covers each of the Gucci years individually, compiling product shots, ads, runway candids, snippets of Ford wisdom ("I think you have to have personality at a brand—otherwise, it's just clothes"), Gucci-sporting celebrities and commercial stills. Vogue's Anna Wintour and Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter contribute a foreword and introduction respectively. The much-covered growth at Gucci and YSL are the real story behind the book, to the point where the press chat credits Ford with "carving out a new industry archetype: the businessman designer." But the 375 color and b&w photos, all culled from existing fashion archives, is more of a look back at how Ford's creations were presented (including year-by-year portraits of the photogenic Ford himself), rather than what led to their creation, how they were actually made or how they fit into the culture at large. As a 10-year time capsule of brand fashioning, the book succeeds perfectly.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Tom Ford has become one of fashion's great icons. In the past decade, he transformed Gucci from a moribund accessories label into one of the sexiest fashion brands in the world. His designs have increased sales at Gucci tenfold and have helped build the Gucci brand into the luxury goods conglomerate that it is today. Ford brought a hard-edged style synonymous with 21st century glamour to his clothes, and Hollywood sat up and took note.
This book is a complete catalogue of Ford's design work for both Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent from 1994 to 2004. It chronicles not only Ford's clothing and accessories designs for both houses, but also explores Ford's grand vision for the complete design of a brand, including architecture, store design, and advertising.
Tom Ford features more than 200 photographs by Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Terry Richardson, Craig McDean, Todd Eberle, and numerous other photographers including many previously unpublished images.
Published to coincide with his departure from Gucci, this book has been created with Ford's full cooperation and every page reflects his exceptional taste. It is Ford's testament to a career of singular moments reinventing the boundaries of style and sensuality in clothing.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847826694
• ISBN-13: 978-0847826698
• Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 11.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,070 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars it is kind of good, but..., November 20, 2005

By	miles "s" (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I witnessed the rise of this man and his designs over the years and I must say it is very hard not to be appealed and seduced by him. He is what he is and he knows this quite well, and is not afraid to share his existence with the rest of the world.

This man was the biggest groundbreaker since Gianni. He became one with the company Gucci, and made his identity mold and cover the company's personality and stance from top to the finest detail in image, production, design, PR and most importantly, in business. It is hard to resist his presence and power.

As a design student, I must say he is also quite inspiring. He is creative alright, has a sense of style and business, ever so perfect, walks the walk, talks the talk, and refines and redefines design according to what he knows best. And it seems he has an answer for everything, because he is basically the 'it' - the tastemaker, the designer, the Oscar Wilde of this era.

I love him for that and he will forever be the story of perfection and power to me.

But the book... for a hard cover block heavier than my fridge, it is just sooo empty. More empty pages than the ones with words on them, more celebrity oriented and focused images than the actual designs and his vision, much less compelling and a lot more reduced -correct word is 'dry'- explanations of his mind and vision...

It is just empty. Why putting images of the likes of Lil Kim, or Eve, and whatever seemed more important than a few more shots from the runways, his sketches, his houses, office space, mag covers etc., I do not know.

It is very hard to find the images or prints of his designs, ad campaigns included wonderful parfume ads, accessories from watches to the infamous bamboo heel stillettos etc, but he would not put any of these that made him who he is internationally, instead we have to see the same dress on a gorgeous model, and on the facing page, we had to see it again on Lil Kim in a very bad tabloid shot.

I dont know how much of his creative ddecisions went into editing the book, but still, it is unacceptable. This is not an art book. This is a book titled as TOM FORD in capital letters, but you do not get the sense of his presence at all. When you title a book with your name, you promise a lot to the audience, and this book just seemed unfinished or very badly edited. I did not expect a biography obviously, and I am happy that it is a visual book, because I always thought that the guy is more of a 2D person than a one dimensional one, but still for a man that has a lot to say and show, there was so much lacking and missing for a huge book of over 400 glossy pages.

Still, I think any price is cheap for this man and his gorgeous book, but still... This is closest the came near imperfection (literally, by my first copy was printed incorrectly-had two inroductions and no interview-changed it later), and I believe this book does not represent a celebration of him, but almost him trying to show what and how much Gucci will lose when he is gone including his celebrity fans etc.


PS: it is funny that he only has one face expression, at least in these photos.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ...goodbye..., January 4, 2005

By	Emily Todd (USA) - See all my reviews

This incredibly beautiful tribute to the legacy of Tom Ford, whose unbelievably sexy designs transformed the struggling fashion houses of Gucci and Yves Saint, is a must-have for any fashionista, photographer, or artist. The gorgeous design of this book makes it worth every penny! Ford himself has combined hundreds of his favorite campaign images, red-carpet snaps, editorial pages, personal portraits, and runway photos into a truly stunning compilation.

In addition, Ford includes a lucrative amount of fascinating analyses and summaries of each year along with his inspirations and personal feelings for each year. Furthermore, the book includes a forward by Anna Wintour, an introduction by Graydon Carter, and an absorbing interview with the man himself by Bridget Foley.

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars its ok, February 21, 2005

By	D. Ninh (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

overpriced and overrated.

too many candid celeb shots - wasted pages that couldve been filled by more fashion spreads or images.

and i got really annoyed by too many images of his stark, boring homes. can anybody honestly live in places like that? so devoid of any kind of color or creativity that he brings to his clothes.

i am in love with tom ford as the next fashionista, for he is a great talent, but for someone who is going to put out a book about himself and his work - where are the pics of the countless people behind the scenes who helped propel him to his superstar status. maybe pics of him hangin out with the seamstresses, i dont know -- something that would show that Tom is indeed human...instead i thought the book, although did present some fantastic images of campaigns and such, was lacking -- straight runway shots are so boring - papparazzi shots of celebs are boring also - im sure there were arty photographers out there at his shows taking pics all those seasons.. i am glad all the image campaign ads were included.