Hardwick knows firsthand how Ford can pull the right answer seemingly out of nowhere. The rest of the fashion world is just learning. Milan went nuts last March after Ford unveiled his first full clothing line as head of Gucci, the fabled but fumbling Italian accessory house. Gucci’s phone circuits overloaded overnight. The show’s models asked to be paid in silky lime-green shirts, velvet hip-huggers, shiny cranberry stilettos–anything from the shockingly sexy-mod line. GIVE ME GUCCI, Harper’s Bazaar soon begged. Odd-shaped fashion trophies followed. At the Vb fashion awards in December, Ford won the Fashion’s Future statue. “Nice to meet you,” said the award’s presenter, a Gucci’d-up Madonna. “Finally.”
As the spring fashion shows begin next week in Italy, Ford knows he should be worried about going from unknown to Flavor of the Moment. He’s seen his share of flops, perhaps none as colossal as Gucci’s own near bankruptcy in the early ’90s, when the once elegant house nearly sank under so much G-plated schlock. But those days seem like a monogrammed lifetime ago, what with all the celebs– including Sharon Stone and Nicole Kidman–sporting his new G-free, “retro” look. Ford, 34, hates that description, saying he’s marinated the mod in a modern juice, such as the optic-orange vinyl he uses on the classic, bamboo-handle purse (unretro price: $1,000). But he doesn’t deny the backward glance: “Our culture is in a retro period–Lucite, those long-hair curly goat things you put on the floor. We’re reliving everything.”
Ford grew up in Texas and New Mexico, the son of real-estate agents. Tall and handsome with piercing brown eyes, he came to New York at 17 and became a habitue of Studio 54 and Andy Warhol’s Factory, then a model and actor. When he tired of shampoo commercials, he got an architecture degree. Though he was always style-conscious–he pleaded for white Gucci loafers when he was 12–he didn’t think about a fashion career until an internship with a French designer. After Hardwick, he designed jeans at Perry Ellis. In 1990 he moved to Gucci, first doing womenswear and now all 11 lines. “Designing for a big company is like being a film director because you put so many elements together,” he says. “The image, the windows, the ad campaign, the men’s collection. That’s what interests me.”
What apparently doesn’t interest him–unlike other designers–is acting like a movie star. Ford lives in Paris with fashion journalist Richard Buckley and a fox terrier named John. He goes to flea markets in his rare spare time. He visits nightclubs now only for work. “I force myself to go because trends come from kids,” he says with a slight Texas twang. “If you’re a good designer, you’re like a vampire, waiting to see how people see things–and taking it.” Which is why he won’t discuss the new collection. “It’s different. People come to Gucci expecting a certain thing, and it’s about to not change, but evolve,” he says. That’s evolution–as in survival of the fittest.
