Yes, you read that right.

The TOM FORD Spring/Summer 2011Womenswear Collection – Ford’s first since leaving Gucci in 2004 – is now marked 50% off at NYC’s Madison Avenue Flagship Store!

Availability is limited but includes both clothing and accessories (shoes! bags! jewelry! oh my!).  These are definitely investment pieces with bags typically running around $3,500 pre-sale, shoes starting at $1,000, and clothing starts at $1,500 with cocktail dresses clocking in at $6,000.

Not sure where to begin?  Check out the lookbook below and make note of the pieces you love before you give the store a call and see what they might have in stock.  Collection details can be found here.

Or, if you are feeling adventurous, just head to Madison Avenue and check it out in person!

TOM FORD
845 Madison Avenue
Phone: (212) 359-0300

Me?  I might call in an order… but if anyone is feeling generous, I am an 8.5/9 in shoes and jewelry is always welcome! 😉

All images via www.TomFord.com and sale information via Madison Avenue Spy

Image via LA Times Blog

The latest issue of the UK’s Grazia Magazine features an interview with our very own Tom Ford.   The designer opened up to Style Director Paula Reed about everything from perfectionism to midlife crisisis to his weakness for carbs.

Although I haven’t been able to get my hands on the magazine itself (can someone send me a copy, pretty please?) a portion of the interview which didn’t make the magazine article has made its way online.

While discussing his first womenswear collection, now available for the first time in London (exclusively at Harrods), Ford shares that the only pieces that make the final collection are the ones he loves.   He goes on to discuss the extremely regimented life of a fashion designer and likens it to being institutionalized.

“This is such a regimented life. We all know what we are doing every week of every year because we make a product that has to be delivered along strict schedules.” [Reed reminds] him of how, in John Galliano’s last interview with WWD before the scandal, he knew where he was going to be every second of every day for the next two years.  “Poor John. What a sad story that is.  But yes. In a way we are institutionalised.”

He also briefly touches on the loss of Alexander McQueen:

“… if you had written him as a character in a novel, the end would almost inevitably have been the same. He came to a dinner with me a few weeks before he died.  He looked so sharp and fantastic. Of course, I look at the picture that was taken of us together and think I see a sadness in his eyes that I didn’t notice at the time. But that, of course, is hindsight.”

Tom Ford with Annabelle Neilson, Naomi Campbell and Alexander McQueen at the Met Ball in 2006 (Image via Grazia Online)

These tidbits echo much of what he said during an interview with Time Out Hong Kong in June:

On Galliano:

“I know John, I like John a lot.  Obviously he’s very troubled.  I feel very sorry for him.  Historically, Yves Saint Laurent had drug problems. A lot of different fashion designers had drugs and alcohol problems.  It’s a very tough, tough, tough business. You have to be very strong.“

On McQueen and the pressures of the fashion industry:

“I brought Alexander McQueen to Gucci group and I loved him and he’s a true, true artist.  I do understand that pressure, because I used to have it at Gucci.  You work for a large company like that and it’s three billion dollars a year in business.  And if you do a bad collection, the company’s sale drops dramatically.  And the other thing is that everyone who works for that company gets their pride from feeling proud of the products that are created.  If you have a bad collection and it’s reviewed badly and it’s not selling the [softens voice] pride and the whole company drops and you feel responsible for it. 

With the work at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent I couldn’t have gone on much longer because I was designing 16 collections a year and I was the vice chairman of the company and was working in the acquisitions committee, bringing in Stella McCartney and buying all these different brands and designing collections.   There was enormous pressure and you have to be very strong. And you become isolated.  Even though I really helped build Gucci from nothing to where it was, well, as that happened you become isolated because you’re like a racehorse.  People just say: ‘Keep ‘em happy! Keep ‘em happy!’ because they want you to keep working. They want to get more out of you. You need to perform, perform, perform.”

So how does Ford keep himself grounded?  One way is by escaping to the countryside.  “I can’t live in NY,” he told Reed.  “I have to be able to see the horizon.  That’s why I love LA, because even though it’s a city it feels like the country.”

To read more of the Grazia Magazine interview click here.

To read the Time Out Hong Kong interview click here.

Regular readers of my other blog, Beautifully Invisible, already know that I have a girl crush on Christina Hendricks.

It turns out that I have also developed a girl crush on Emma Stone.

Imagine how excited I was when I spotted Emma rocking a dress from Ford’s  A/W 2011 Collection at the July 19, 2011 world premiere of her latest movie, Crazy, Stupid, Love, at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City.

Stone  positively glowed on the red carpet while wearing the black guipure 3D lace dress (with its long sleeves removed).

Then again, if I was wearing TOM FORD and standing next to Ryan Gosling, I’d be glowing too.

I think Stone’s stylist is doing a phenomenal job. You?

All images courtesy of The Fashion Spot and TOM FORD (closeup by me)

Photo by SGP Italia srl/WireImage, via The Talks

I came across a wonderful interview with Tom Ford on The Talks this morning.

The Talks is a weekly online interview magazine. The site founders, Johannes Bonke and Sven Schumann, talk to all sorts of cultural figures throughout the year. Their latest subject was Ford.

It is a very personal interview that offers some unique insight into Tom Ford, the man, instead of Tom Ford, the designer.

These are a few of my favorite bits:

On whether he has ever had a midlife crisis:

Yes. Leaving Gucci was devastating for me. Devastating because I had really put everything into that for fifteen years and all of a sudden I had no identity. “Who am I? What am I doing? I have no forum to speak to anyone anymore or to convey my thoughts or ideas.” Maybe I drank a little too much – living in London that’s a very easy thing to do. The emphasis in my life maybe switched to things that were not the important things. So yeah, I had a bit of a midlife crisis. I wish there was a better term for that. It comes to everybody, maybe in your thirties, maybe in your forties, maybe in your sixties or seventies, who knows. You get to the moment where you feel the clock is ticking and you are wondering if you are really getting the most out of your life.

On whether the glamour inherent in the life of a fashion designer interests him:

After just being in New Mexico for two months, I realized that I could really work from anywhere. I am really a loner after all; I am really not a social person. Because of my job people think I am out every night, but I really hate all that. I am somebody who likes to be alone and see some close friends. I am a shy and introspective person.

On his spirituality:

I am a spiritual person in an eastern religion kind of way. I learned that happiness for all of us is a switch that you flick in your brain. It doesn’t have anything to do with getting a new house, a new car, a new girlfriend, or a new pair of shoes. Our culture is very much about that; we are never happy with what we have today. We always think that we need something else to be happy.

On becoming the “Tom Ford” everyone expects him to be:

It takes me a long time in the morning to become the person that other people expect me to be. When I feel depressed and I have a bad day or something terrible has happened or I have to face something, I go through a very precise ritual getting dressed in the morning. In a sense it is armor; I’m building up a layer. If everything in my material world is in order, I will be able to get through it. That perfectionism comes from me being a Virgo. My inner world is related to my outer world. If my house is a wreck, I’m a wreck. If I am together, that’s together. That’s a kind of balance.

On the fact he doesn’t get hit on, ever…

Honestly, I don’t meet very many people. I am married but no one comes on to me, ever. It is like I don’t exist sexually. No one, no one… no one, no one flirts, no one comes on to me. Usually when people are personal with me, then they want to give me their business card at the end of the conversation.

**********

Love it?  Me too.

And Tom: I’d totally flirt with you.

Read the full interview here.

Excerpts courtesy of The Talks.

July has been a good month for TOM FORD Collection sightings.

First, an all grown-up Emma Watson modeled that killer chain mail shirt for us in Vogue.

Next, Tom Ford muse, and occasional runway star, Beyoncé wore some beautifully detailed gowns in Vogue Italia.  I still die over the first photo.

Then, Mila Kunis was flirting it up with Justin Timberlake while wearing the Chantilly Lace Dress in ELLE Magazine.

Shortly thereafter, the official Autumn/Winter 2011 ad campaign was released.  You can expect to see those shots – in all their high-gloss glory – starting with the September issues.

Now, a few more pieces from the collection have been featured in the August 2011 issue of Vogue Paris.

Anna Selezneva in “Rouge Aura”

Photographers Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer bring vibrant reds and dazzling diamonds to life in the editorial entitled “Rouge Aura”.   Though Anna Selezneva models a stunning wardrobe of jewel red tones, nothing says glamour quite like a scarlet velvet tuxedo.

Anna Selezneva by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer (Image via storemags)

Although this is the only TF shot, the full editorial can be seen here.

Freja Beha Erichsen in “Escale A L.A.”

The main editorial in this issue of Vogue Paris is “Escale A L.A.”, a 65-page collection-focused editorial photographed by Inez and Vinoodh.

Freja is in full-on rockstar mode for this shoot and is wearing one of the most iconic pieces of  A/W 2011 on the TOM FORD page: the red degrade’ kidassia fur jacket.  I WANT IT.

I wish we could see more of the detail on the black lacquered lace shirt and silk satin flair trousers, but we’ll just have to wait for the next editorial!

Freja Beha Erichsen by Inez and Vinoodh (image via storemags)

Again, this is the only TF shot, but you can see the full editorial here.

I think the first editorial shows off the clothing MUCH better than the collection ed.  What do you think?  Which shot do you prefer?

P.S.  Is it just me, or does Anna resemble Blake Lively in this shot?  Just a bit?

Image Credit: Simon Perry Studio

Suddenly I feel a desperate need to go to London Fashion Week in September.

The official (albeit provisional) London Fashion Week schedule has been released and amongst the usual suspects there was a surprise this time around:

Could it be? Are we actually going to be blessed with a Full Runway Presentation from Ford this time around?

Ford’s showcases have been shrouded in secrecy since his 2010 return to womenswear.  Access has been severely limited and he has insisted on near media black-outs.   His first showing, in New York City, was a small, intimate, invitation-only affair.  The second collection did show in London, but access was only granted through private appointments.  No outside crews were in attendance to document either event.

No further details are available yet for the September line-up, but it is worth noting that all of the presentations on the schedule are listed in blue italics.  Ford’s show is listed in black boldface type.  You know what else is listed in black boldface type?

Full Runway Shows.

Please, fashion gods, make it so.

In case you aren’t sure what a Tom Ford runway show is like, check this tribute out:

Are you as excited about the possibility as I am?

Source: Vogue

Have you been searching unsuccessfully for a deal on the TOM FORD Whitney’s?

Or maybe the Jennifer’s are more your style?

If you frequent any of the popular sample sale sites you likely already know that the Whitney and Jennifer styles are usually omitted from any TOM FORD sales, and with good reason.  They are among the most popular TOM FORD styles available and constant celebrity favorites.

Jennifer Aniston recently spotted in the Jennifer sunglasses and Tom Ford A/W 2011 Handbag

If you have been dying for a pair but don’t want to shell out $360 – $380, you are in luck!

Beyond the Rack has included BOTH styles in their current TOM FORD sunglass sale. The sale runs through July 15th, but will likely sell out earlier.  Get them while you can!

Click here or an the image below if you need an invite to Beyond the Rack:

Click for an invite to Beyond the Rack

I am buying a pair of the Jennifer’s for myself.  LOVE.

Let me know if you take advantage of the sale in the comments below!