Missoni, the family-run fashion brand, didn’t turn a profit for 10 years until it hit the headlines in the 60s and Tom Ford says his designs are creative but not art and reveals what profession he’d be in if he wasn’t in fashion.
The Italian fashion house was started by newlyweds Rosita and Ottavio Missoni in 1953 when the couple set up a small workshop making tracksuits and later moved on to knitwear but Ottavio revealed it was a decade before they saw any financial benefit.
He said, ”We started making a profit after 10 years of activity and that day I felt like the richest man in the world.”
Rosita also explained the couple decided to focus on ready-to-wear rather than high fashion because that was more profitable.
She said, ”High fashion was declining and there was this new thing, ready-to-wear, that was kicking off and we found ourselves in this situation in the early 1960s. With our 10 years of experience, we knew what we wanted to do and tried to find our own way.”
The company made waves in 1967, when Rosita sent braless models down the catwalk at the Pitti Palace in Florence and the runway lighting caused the outfits to become totally transparent.
Rosita explained, ”I didn’t think we were doing anything scandalous but they accused us of turning the Pitti Palace into the Crazy Horse [famous burlesque palace in Paris].”
Today the thriving company is run by the couple’s children Luca, Angela and Vittorio and some of their grandchildren, including Angela’s daughter Margherita, with revenues of more than €150 million.
The 50-year-old designer – who made his film directorial debut in 2009 with ‘A Single Man’ – always ensures his garments are functional and live up to traditional expectations of design, rather than being experimental or avant garde.
He said, ”The film industry is slow and I would lose my mind. You can really only make a movie every couple of years.
”I love to design. I am a commercial fashion designer. I always design jackets with two sleeves. I don’t design jackets with three sleeves or the layers and layers come off like little dolls from Russia.
”Fashion for me is a creative endeavour but it is not art for me.”
Tom also admitted he would’ve liked to have been a cosmetic surgeon had he not pursued a fashion career.
He said, ”In another life I would love to be a cosmetic surgeon because it’s architectural. You know, you are trying to figure out where the seams go. Can I do it in one piece like Halston? Can you formaldehyde DNA?”
However, the designer is not a big fan of men going under the knife.
Speaking at the 92Y talk in New York, he said, ”A man can’t have a facelift very well because they cut here and then you have your sideburns in your ear. I quite like my beard. There is this little gap here. I am always looking to see whose got the hairs growing out of the side of the ears.”
