Tom Ford Menswear S/S 2023 New York

[vogue28]

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[vogue28]

VOGUE.COM

 

[MyNameIs]

Yes, Tom Ford! Please bring back the slimmer silhouette, fitted looks, and sophistication to mens fashion.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

One thing I appreciate is he never gave in to the Thom Browne trend of childish short cut blazers. They're such a nice proper length.

 

[THD96]

I find it quite safe and boring. Very classic and commercial for Tom Ford.

I prefer the men's look in his last show. I like when he pushes himself more and pushes the taste of his clients.

That being said I like the turquoise diamond quilted and suede jackets.

 

[reese06]

It's nice but completely irrelevant to the fashion conversation at this point which is fine but Tom seems to go back and forth with mixed results which can be confusing.

It wasn't too long ago when he was being recognized and worn by a wider audience. Now he seems to be coasting more on his name and while i'm all about consistency, the brand feels a bit stale.

 

[Lola701]

I prefer when Tom Ford menswear is more opulent than when it plays with bad taste. He had collections where the played with the idea of formality through the mix of shirts and ties or prints in suits.
FW2022 is superior to that even if the eveningwear here is great.

But from I have been told, Tom is still going through it with the loss of his husband… That explains the « laziness » in his latest propositions.

 

[tricotineacetat]

I really enjoy wearing tailoring but there is something about the way his collections are styled that makes it feel very formally divided in suit-and-tie looks and obvious resort looks that makes it appear to me like we're looking at a GQ magazine of about 20 years ago - It's very much stuck in the idea that we are still living with those codified dress codes when in fact increasingly less people are wearing the full-on suit look anymore. The flipside of that coin are the flashy underwear pieces, like those silk pyjama pants with logo waistband, that most of the online stores are full with - It would be nice if he emphasized more on the middle ground and emphasized something less drastic than black tie or bedroom, duhhhh...

Even when we're looking at collections like Haider Ackermann's Berluti or Stefano Pilati's time at Zegna, there has been a sense of lightening up and being less formal, which feels more relatable and 'street' even if the clothes and the brands they have been designing for are everything but. We know Tom Ford stands for this uber-glamorous lifestyle but I feel the times have changed and that idea of luxury is a bit passé...

 

[Lola701]

I really enjoy wearing tailoring but there is something about the way his collections are styled that makes it feel very formally divided in suit-and-tie looks and obvious resort looks that makes it appear to me like we're looking at a GQ magazine of about 20 years ago - It's very much stuck in the idea that we are still living with those codified dress codes when in fact increasingly less people are wearing the full-on suit look anymore. The flipside of that coin are the flashy underwear pieces, like those silk pyjama pants with logo waistband, that most of the online stores are full with - It would be nice if he emphasized more on the middle ground and emphasized something less drastic than black tie or bedroom, duhhhh...

Even when we're looking at collections like Haider Ackermann's Berluti or Stefano Pilati's time at Zegna, there has been a sense of lightening up and being less formal, which feels more relatable and 'street' even if the clothes and the brands they have been designing for are everything but. We know Tom Ford stands for this uber-glamorous lifestyle but I feel the times have changed and that idea of luxury is a bit passé...

But hasn’t the Tom Ford menswear look always been « dated » compared to any current style of fashion. When he started in 2007/2008…I remember, it was much more formal, outrageous, luxurious than this and anything else in the market.
Menswear at the time was still in the Hedi Slimane wave. Men wore their blazers with jeans and shirts and sneakers and the skinny suit was legion. Tom came with three pieces suits, a very debonair to the extreme look, very sophisticated. I remember the campaigns with Jon with those outrageous poses for men…

In a way that was the key to his success because his proposition for men was fresh. I remember at the time it was sold at Colette and it was quite hype in a weird way…

I think overtime, the evolution of Tom Ford menswear is good. It is still suits, fashion but it’s also something else.

With this collection, Tom Ford is speaking more to the younger generation of Timothee Chalamet or the nouveau riches of Dubai. The people who have to wear suits in their daily lives and who maybe wants more of Sartorial look don’t look at this lookbook as a reference but Tom imo understand really well his men and the aspirations of today, of a luxury customer.
That being said, even if I’ve converted my husband to Tom Ford, this lookbook is not the look.

This is maybe too pop as an offering.

 

[tricotineacetat]

But hasn’t the Tom Ford menswear look always been « dated » compared to any current style of fashion. When he started in 2007/2008…I remember, it was much more formal, outrageous, luxurious than this and anything else in the market.
Menswear at the time was still in the Hedi Slimane wave. Men wore their blazers with jeans and shirts and sneakers and the skinny suit was legion. Tom came with three pieces suits, a very debonair to the extreme look, very sophisticated. I remember the campaigns with Jon with those outrageous poses for men…

In a way that was the key to his success because his proposition for men was fresh. I remember at the time it was sold at Colette and it was quite hype in a weird way…

I think overtime, the evolution of Tom Ford menswear is good. It is still suits, fashion but it’s also something else.

With this collection, Tom Ford is speaking more to the younger generation of Timothee Chalamet or the nouveau riches of Dubai. The people who have to wear suits in their daily lives and who maybe wants more of Sartorial look don’t look at this lookbook as a reference but Tom imo understand really well his men and the aspirations of today, of a luxury customer.
That being said, even if I’ve converted my husband to Tom Ford, this lookbook is not the look.

This is maybe too pop as an offering.

You might remember I had mentioned Tom Ford and Haider Ackermann in another discussion as being an unlikely but good match - After all, they both share a liking for louche fabrics, rich colour and a mature sensuality. Really when you look at Haider's uber-luxurious Berluti collections, they aren't so far away from Tom Ford's territory, but the way they are presented gives you the feeling these clothes, as mature and precious as they are, can walk just like that down the street - There is a laid-back feeling and a groundedness there that may or may not have something to do with his Belgian roots.

Like I said before, my complaints with Tom Ford is mostly in the presentation and styling of the clothes. It starts with the photography and ends in the styling: A head-to-toe lavender, mint green or pink suit look, complete with a matching wide tie and crocodile loafers feels gaudy and corny, not far from the blatant display of money as Philipp Plein. Timothee Chalamet really made the best out of what a brand like Tom Ford has to offer by toning down his suits with a much more grounded options. That still carries the message of Tom Ford suits as the last word in chic tailoring but in a way that feels right in 2022, which Tom's uber-chiseled pimps (and by extend his latest trashy womenswear collection) does not.

 

[Phuel]

Frankly, so much could easily be refreshing and simply rebranded to bring the imagery out of the tacky territory that this brand has been rotting in. I’ve long given up on the Tom Ford branding for both his women’s and men’s a long time ago.: They’re embarrassing cheap-looking AF. (…Though not as gross as Philip Plein, it’s more Cavalii territory. It’s a caricature that’s very Zoolander.) But it must be working for his core customer...

With Tom’s menswear, it’s the premium quality and classic, sartorial construction of design that I’m interested in: And I never want anyone to know I’m wearing Tom Ford. That's meant as a compliment, and a testament of how strong and desirable the very best of his separates are IRL. But alongside the no-nonsense classic cuts for men that’s timeless— there’s also a lot of classic tackiness that’s pure eurotrash-signature: The gaudy dinner jackets, the loud shiny suits, the cartoony animal-print lounge/underwear etc etc. There’s not enough drugs to convince to me dress head-to-toe as presented in these looks. And those always horrendous sunglasses LOL Unfortunately, all this must be a marketing success: It’s all very fashion 101. Frankly, if it weren’t for his Gucci and YSL past, I would not be buying Tom Ford.

 

[Fulton St Critique]

I still can't stop thinking about that silk trench. A real bright spot in an otherwise forgetable collection.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ Oh absolutely! But there are always these scrumptious separates scattered throughout his collections that you can make all your own, without them screaming Tom Ford. Even the croc (embossed?) boots are gorgeous if they weren’t a part of the heinous looks (…those gross white plastic chunky watches like the guidos circa 2010 would wear has to be Tom trolling. Has to be).. Like @tricotineacetat pointed out, there are strong similarities between Tom Ford and Haider’s Berluti once the designs are separated from their presentations. Haider reigns it all back with an emphasis on masculine beauty, while for some odd reason, Tom goes full tired tacky flexing.

When Tom presented the hustler/playboy/p*rn star with that 1970s-Cuban flair for Gucci 2003, he revamped the cliches of swish machismo bad taste to such luxurious freshness: You can already hear the swagger, taste the sweat, and smell the musk of his gorgeous men. And the flare pant, the turtleneck and the calvary jacket worked because he took them to a level that was never expected, explored and proposed for the time and still looking so luxuriously Gucci. This current offering just looks tiresome, because that image of men has been parodied and so common now, it may as well be Victoria’s Secret for men.

Gucci A/W 2003:

 

[Lola701]

^^^ Oh absolutely! But there are always these scrumptious separates scattered throughout his collections that you can make all your own, without them screaming Tom Ford. Even the croc (embossed?) boots are gorgeous if they weren’t a part of the heinous looks (…those gross white plastic chunky watches like the guidos circa 2010 would wear has to be Tom trolling. Has to be).. Like @tricotineacetat pointed out, there are strong similarities between Tom Ford and Haider’s Berluti once the designs are separated from their presentations. Haider reigns it all back with an emphasis on masculine beauty, while for some odd reason, Tom goes full tired tacky flexing.

When Tom presented the hustler/playboy/p*rn star with that 1970s-Cuban flair for Gucci 2003, he revamped the cliches of swish machismo bad taste to such luxurious freshness: You can already hear the swagger, taste the sweat, and smell the musk of his gorgeous men. And the flare pant, the turtleneck and the calvary jacket worked because he took them to a level that was never expected, explored and proposed for the time and still looking so luxuriously Gucci. This current offering just looks tiresome, because that image of men has been parodied and so common now, it may as well be Victoria’s Secret for men.

Gucci A/W 2003:

One of his great GUCCI menswear collection. I’ve always loved how beautifully the pants moved in this collection.
Tom Ford, the brand exude that idea of boldness but I don’t think Tom’s customers would be bold enough to wear those pants. They are gorgeous btw and I think they would look wonderful with the cut of modern Tom Ford jackets.

Unfortunately for Fashion fans, men and women, Tom is not playing the fashion game but pleasing his current clientele. There was a kind of universal magic with his Gucci. Everybody wore it from the edgiest editor to the biggest TV star to the young woman in the suburbs.

I don’t think living in LA also helps because it influences your designs. It’s like living in Dubai in a way.

Tom does his classics like no one, he is a bit like Alaia in that sense, but a lot of the current clientele loves the loud things. Sometimes he can do wonderful things tho. But in menswear, I think his FW 2002 YSL collection is probably one of the best of his career. It was one ambitious collection that weirdly would look very trendy today but I can’t imagine a Tom Ford (the brand) customer buying this (except my husband because I would force him to anyway)!

I must say that I love his use of lilac with men.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ This 2022 collection looks like Tom’s been living in Mumbai rathe than LA...

The Gucci A/W 2003 men’s was and remains beyond beyond beyond gorgeous. And so YSL as Yves never could. I’ve always suspected Yves so aggressively dismissed Tom because Tom was so so so untouchably great during this era, and Yves may have felt threatened by how effortlessly Tom moved from house to house with such refined vision. He took YSL to such gorgeous heights that Yves never could.

The cut of those flares and the way they move, made even more smouldering with the way the men move, just so effortlessly good. Such a masterclass of design, presentation and casting.There’s both an undeniable feminine and masculine energy to the structure of such a strong silhouette that’s as fluid as it’s so sternly, steely structured: The flares balancing off the tailored coats and jackets, all pulled together with the scarf worn as a choker: The look would translate so effortlessly good on women (…Carine styled the men's Gucci shows?). All that, and the Holy Trinity of Tom/Carine/Mario for the branding during this era was epic.

In 2022, men are reduced to neutered, pubescent little boys looking like scared rodents, playing dressup in oversized, ill-fitting clothes. For as tacky as the Tom Ford men’s image may be now, I’ll take it because when you get down to what matters— the clothes, they’re unapologetically designed for men.