Tom Ford: 'Materialism is not important - I'd rather live in the desert with my dog', says millionaire whose dresses sell for £3,000

• The fashion designer opens up about his 'split-personality'

By Martha De Lacey

Published: 05:43 EST, 22 August 2012 | Updated: 06:42 EST, 22 August 2012

• e-mail

Tom Ford on the cover of i-D Magazine with his late fox terrier John in 2001

Fast cars, fancy parties, free-flowing champagne....the fashion industry sounds like a blast.

But it's not all rosy at the top - just ask Tom Ford.

The American designer has opened up about his eternal internal battle between the inherently materialistic nature of his job.

And he has revealed his (now not-so) secret desire to live a much more chilled-out existence: as an artist in the desert with his dog.

Speaking candidly during an interview for VMan Magazine with NFL player (and Mr Gisele Bundchen) Tom Brady, Ford revealed he found it difficult to marry the behaviour of people within the fashion world with what they actually represent.

He spoke specifically about the Met Ball, American Vogue editor Anna Wintour's annual New York party where designers and models hobnob in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ford said he found irony in rich people 'wearing a million dollars worth of jewellery, and dressed in $30,000 dresses that are only good this season because next season it's all going to look out-of-date', while dancing to a Bruno Mars song with the lyrics You're Amazing Just the Way You Are.

Tom Ford as we know him - on the catwalk after a show, left,  and at a glitzy fashion party, right

Ford continued: 'That was quite funny because it's this industry, of course, that makes people feel like they have to change.

'I have such a split personality about it. On the one hand I want to go off and live in the desert with my dog and sculpt things out of adobe, but then on the other I''m part of this industry that creates insecurity and focuses on materialism and things that aren't actually, for me, the most important things in life. So it's strange.'

RELATED ARTICLES

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next

• His bark is worse than his bite: Tom Brady insists he is a... Credit cards at the ready ladies, British style icon Alexa...
• 'It's depressing having to be a fantasy!': Isabella...

Share this article

Ford and his partner, former Vogue Homme international editor Richard Buckley, have two smooth fox terriers, Angus and India.

They both starred alongside Colin Firth in Ford's debut 2009 film, A Single Man.

Ford's first fox terrier, John, appeared with the designer both on fashion runways and on the cover of i-D Magazine in 2001 before dying at the age of 13.

Ford has previously said that his favourite smell in the world is that of his dogs' ears.

Tom Brady on the Mario Testino-shot cover of the August issue of VMan Magazine, in which he speaks to Tom Ford about family and dogs

Tom Brady poses with a dog in a shoot for VMan Magazine, in which he is interviewed by designer Tom Ford

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaJ6Voq6quI6aqa2hk6Gybn6QcmhxcGdkkaa%2FyKClnqpdibyueaWoqZ1lo6WyorfSZouopV13v6Kw2GabqJ9encGuuA%3D%3D