The Talented Mr Ford

Ford’s first attempt at filmmaking is so impressive it hurts the chest. It is a love story of a man devastated by his partner dying in a car crash and seeks the meaning in the mundane and everyday. That it is love between two men and also set in California of the 60s — with a threat from Cuba hanging overhead — is only incidental. Each shot is nothing short of poetry — like a mood montage. The colours are subdued sepia to sexual plums. And the filmmaking is so stylish it almost threatens to overtake the beautiful storyline. Colin Firth is the sexiest gay character I’ve ever watched; a slew of awards prove it.

But this is not a movie review. It’s an acknowledgement of the genius of Ford,hitherto only lauded for his business canny and pushy attitude.

The sparring Gucci family only hired an American designer — the corn-fed Texan Ford — to impress its ever-expanding American clientele. He was hardworking and toiled over 11 collections in one year. He was almost fired by them for making the classic label too fashiony,but when the greenbacks shored up,he was forgiven. Ford was also allowed on the runway to take a bow after four years of working with Gucci.

Blessed with a glamorous grandmother and indulgent parents,Ford’s uniform since the age of 13 consisted Gucci loafers,blue blazers and button-down oxford shirts. He never found his calling — he studied architecture but found it torturously serious. He modeled for television commercials and at one point had as many as 12 aired simultaneously. His vanity killed his modeling career; at a shampoo commercial shoot,a hairdresser remarked he was losing his hair and mounted his insecurity. And then one day,the words ‘fashion designer’ came into his head like a “computer printout” he says. Tom Ford wanted to be Calvin Klein: young,stylish,rich and good-looking,the first designer with movie star appeal. (He so reminds of Manish Malhotra,who is still to make his much awaited first film.)

Of course Ford trained on the job,with a small New York designer Cathy Hardwick. She asked him to make a circle skirt and he had no idea how. He ran down,hopped on a subway and headed to Bloomingdale’s where he flipped all the circle skirts he could find and copy.

Ford’s is hardly the poor-designer-toiling-with-one-tailor tale fashionistes adore and fall for. He takes the mickey and the purity out of fashion. Fashion is often not about making beautiful clothes and creating the ideal of a woman,it’s also about making pots of money and marketing yourself as a product on a shelf.

For Ford’s many detractors,A Single Man is his redemption.

(namratanow@gmail.com)