Tom Ford on why gay men are ‘better fashion designers’
Tom Ford says gay men make better designers because they can “detach the physical from the spiritual”.
Speaking to artist John Currin for Interview magazine, the designer said that gay men’s lack of sexual desire for women allows them to combine physical beauty with “soul and personality”.
Ford said: “I think I detach the physical from the spiritual. It’s my business to make a woman or a man beautiful, and I’m working with a model in a fitting, and I’ve objectified them to the point that they become an object.
“They’re something that I’m modeling or shaping or sculpting, but I’m very aware that even though I make them physically beautiful, their soul and personality and character is somewhat detached from that.
“It’s great when you have a combination of the two — that’s what makes a true beauty. Some people are physically beautiful but yet they’re completely uninteresting, and thus they’re not beautiful. I detach the two. … That’s why I think gay men make better designers.”
The designer also explained why his directorial debut, A Single Man, had an “unsexualized” aesthetic.
He said: “I think those are human experiences that everyone can relate to. So this movie wasn’t about sex. It was about love. That was on purpose, because a lot of people equate homosexuality with sex and not necessarily with love.”
