Tom Ford: the Interview

Designer Tom Ford is rare in interviews, but when he grants a precious one-on-one to a magazine, there's no holding back.

Now the father of a 2-year-old, Jack, with his long-time partner Richard Buckley, Ford reflects on his past as a "functioning alcoholic" for my premiere blog and ponders on his infamous shower photoshoot with Terry Richardson for Out. 

Being a dad impacted his sex appeal:

“I feel less sexy now that I’m a father – and actually there’s a scientific reason for that. I read that men who are the primary caregivers of children have lower testosterone levels. It drops, according to some reports, because nature wants the man to stay with the children and not let them wander off… Now I don’t know if my testosterone levels have dropped or not, I haven’t had them tested, but I feel less sexy, definitely. ”

He was drunk during his nude shoot for Out:

“I suppose stopping drinking made me feel less sexy, too. I think that being drunk all the time used to fuel, and I don’t mean my sex drive, but my… you know, I did a lot of things with [risqué fashion photographer] Terry Richardson, that I wouldn’t have otherwise done.” 

He wakes up at 4.30am every morning:

“I get up and make myself a gigantic iced coffee. I then answer emails and work until about 6am. Then I will head upstairs and have a second giant iced coffee and lay in the bathtub. I don’t like warm drinks of any kind. I lay in my bathtub with a bendable straw in my coffee and no lights and only one candle lit. I love that time in the morning when no one else is awake, and I’m alone, and then I can slowly come to life.”

Yes, he covers the gray:

“I used to plan what I was going to look like at 50 years old. Yeah, I was going to have some grey right here – which I have decided not to have for the moment – I was going to have more hair [he smiles], but other than that I am exactly what I thought I was going to be.”

He loves gummy candy, but he's never seen his staff eat: Although he is careful with his waist – usually eating just sushi for lunch – he does have a predilection for Colin the Caterpillar fruit gums. 

“My assistants think I don’t like people who eat. It’s true I don’t like to see or smell food in the office. But I don’t like the staff to leave the office, either. I’ve never actually seen anyone here eat. Perhaps they eat under their desks when I’m in here doing interviews.”