A stellar crowd convened at Tom Ford’s pre-show cocktail party in Los Angeles to witness his Fall Winter 2015 show. The star studded audience resembled something akin to a commercial for the Oscars.
“Of the 500 guests who attended the show, 270 were in the entertainment industry. I’d better give them some showmanship stated the designer before his show. “It never snows in Los Angeles. Let’s make it snow rose petals.” As the crowd settled in for the show white rose petals were strewn down the runway by gorgeous male models. A decade ago, he used a similar device at his now infamous 2004 exit show from Gucci in Milan that ended in a shower of red rose petals. The fashion editors in attendance like Anna Wintour and Eva Chen got the reference immediately.
What’s remarkable is how the stars all aligned for Tom Ford’s Fall Winter 2015 show. He saw an opportunity to mount his show on Oscars weekend, and ran with it. It was a brilliant move and made for a front row publicity machine of all the top actresses and A-Listers wearing his clothes. It’s clear he made a pretty bold move, some would call it fearless statement by showing in L.A. instead of London, especially since London Fashion Week was well underway.
“So many visuals in our world are filtered through Los Angeles, including music, television and film, and in this way it influences global fashion in a profound way,” said Tom Ford in October last year when he announced that he was moving his womenswear show to the City of Angels. “Like fashion, film is also a creative endeavour that is extremely important to me. I am excited to bring these two aspects of my life together by presenting the collection in Los Angeles.”
With his latest collection Ford returned to a more bohemian aesthetic for which he was so beloved at Gucci. The opening trio of tiered frocks with nipped waists featured Victorian leg-of-mutton puffed sleeves and knotted and braided leather chokers that had a touch of Victorian modesty about them. These were followed by pony-skin leopard patch-worked in a multitude of ways on denim jacket, coats and furs. One full-length fur coat combined at least three, if not four, different types of furs. Many of the looks resembled a hyper-luxe version of the Southwest, at times punctuated with prairie skirts and 70s bohemian touches.
Never short on sex appeal, Ford loves fringe, and used it throughout to great effect swinging from the back of a blazer, and falling in tiers on a short white dress and many of his evening gowns. An elegant, black jersey evening gown with an cowling open back, was tied with a single velvet ribbon. There were modernist swirls of vibrantly colored sequins and textured metallic embroidery on slim silhouetted evening gowns. The most spectacular of which was in gold copper and black swirls worn by the model Joan Smalls.
Ford closed his show with a sheer evening gown trimmed in fringe at the sleeves worn by Karlie Kloss creating an unforgettable fashion moment as white petals fell from above like snowflakes. He got a standing ovation at the end of the show. He said, “It felt like coming home.”
