FASHION:MALE STYLE ICONS don't get more glamorous than Tom Ford whose dark and handsome looks have always forged the image of the brands that he promotes, most particularly his own. Ford, who is the inspiration for this menswear feature, is currently in focus for his new role as movie director with A Single Man.
Both directed and financed by Ford, it is up for three awards at the Golden Globes next week. Famous for rescuing the moribund Italian brand Gucci in the 1990s and later transforming YSL, the designer quit the Gucci group in 2004 after a dispute, but two years later rose again to create his own – terrifyingly expensive – classic menswear line and multiple fragrances.
Since then he has dressed the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, in Quantum of Solace and influenced the style of high profile men including David Beckham. Menswear, he believes, is very much about cut and quality and making a man’s body look good in the manner of traditional Savile Row tailoring, but in modern ways. The Ford way of dressing may be more Rolls Royce in approach and aesthetics, but it follows certain established rules, the primary one being the studied elegance of the detail. By his own admission, Ford is obsessive about detail and it shows.
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The clean lines of a well-made suit, the designer stubble and the unbuttoned shirt are very much aspects of his trademark look, along with shades worn for both protection and effect. Those who study the way he dresses, note the dark suits with the defined shoulderline and the tapered waist. Trousers are lean and slim, jackets cover the bottom and the shirt is often worn casually without a tie, but with shooting cuffs, while the wider lapel can be strategic in creating the appearance of a wider, stronger shoulder. Accessories are minimal – a scarf arranged adroitly around the neck, perhaps – and grooming is always impeccable, though not many contemporary males are going to admit, as Ford did recently, that they have used Botox and Restylane. Contemporary peacocks know where to draw the line, but a new era of male elegance may be on the rise.
