“THE last thing I want to see are serious clothes. I think we need an escape.” An escape is exactly what Tom Ford delivered – this collection was one of easy escapism; jubilant clothes that spoke of good times past and good times yet to come, all worn with a relaxed, carefree ease.
This collection, and Ford’s mission to distract from the difficulties of this year, speaks to the relationship between clothes and our everyday. These pieces were born from Ford’s initial instinct to skip the season, in a time when “fashion just seemed like an extravagance”, but emerged as an antidote to these feelings of hopelessness.
The collection offers escape from reality, but is also designed to actively spur smiles and happiness; to play an active role in our lives now.
The clothes themselves contrast the more subdued pieces of AW20. They are bold, and echo Ford’s Gucci during the 1990s: jewel tones and silky textures. Ford cites his lockdown watching as a source of inspiration, namely a documentary abut the fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, who was prolific in the ‘70s. The clothes hark back to joyful sartorial success.
The menswear collection was coloured with pale pinks, fuchsia and red set on white backdrops. Tailored trousers of icy blue, pistachio and sunny orange florals were matched with ruffle fronted shirts undone to the navel. The women’s prints were bolder: leopard print, black florals shot through with pink, and a psychedelic twist on zebra.
Blouses were loose and unbuttoned, tucked into silky trousers with branded waistbands. Billowing tie-dye caftans were draped over delicate crochet bikinis. These are clothes fit for the socially distanced outdoor dinner parties in LA that marked the ease of lockdown for Ford, as well as for the hope of the technicolored future that he conjures for us.
by Connie de Pelet