Fashion designer, Tom Ford chose not to show his Spring Summer 2011 collection to the world’s fashion media back in September 2010. Tired of seeing his clothes being knocked off, he instead hired only one photographer, Terry Richardson, to photograph the event and has kept it a secret until now. The video showing the clothes, behind-the-scenes footage of models and celebrities has just been released on youtube.
This fashion immediacy thing — yes, if you can order the clothes immediately, if you can see them and press a button and they can be shipped to your house, I get fashion immediacy.…I don’t get the need for this immediacy. In fact, I think it’s bad.
The way the system works now, you see the clothes, within an hour or so they’re online, the world sees them. They don’t get to a store for six months. The next week, young celebrity girls are wearing them on red carpets. They’re in every magazine. The customer is bored with those clothes by the time they get to the store. They’re overexposed, you’re tired of them, they’ve lost their freshness, you see somebody wearing it and you say, “Oh, that’s that jacket that was in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Or [a] customer doesn’t want to wear that jacket that was in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In addition, all of the fast-fashion companies that do a great job, by the way, knock everything off. So it’s everywhere all over the streets in three months and by the time you get it to the store, what’s the point?
I’m holding everything back, controlling all the photography. I’m sure there were some leaks last night from people shooting with cell phones. I wish that that hadn’t happened. I don’t know if it did — I’m sure it did. I’m holding the photography back. I’m holding all the clothes back. The clothes are not going out to magazines before January issues. The clothes are not going to celebrities before December. The images are not being released online until December, when they’ll go online on my Web site.
Tom Ford’s 2011 Spring Summer collection video:
What do you think, is fashion moving too fast? How quickly do you get bored of your clothes?
Top Comments
I understand why Tom Ford would do this. Every designer has their own ethics in mind or just how they feel about certain issues. I think waiting for it makes it all the more special in some instances, say a small business designing garments who only sell on the internet do not have a choice but it is a great medium to capture a vast audience if you're starting out. In that situation the internet is good for fashion. But otherwise I think releasing it the old fashioned way- on the runway. Is still a good way to go, THEN post a range/promos online.
Love it. The clothes. The setting. The buzz. Everyone's having a ball.
He's an artist. He's doing it his way. And he's HOT!
I read that he designed all the dresses with each woman in mind, and while they didn't get to keep their outfits, he's making them a tuxedo using their measurements from the fittings.
I die.