Coalescing the seemingly divergent concepts of athleisure and glamorous evening wear, the Tom Ford Spring 2022 Ready-To-Wear collection makes sense of our now fraught relationship with dressing up. While the majority of us are itching to shun the sweatpants and get out of the house, Ford recognises that there’s still something a little off about getting fully kitted up in floor-length gowns and sharp suiting.
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“Perhaps it has been the pandemic and more time at home, or perhaps it is the more relaxed lifestyle of LA, but this season I am very much into a kind of glamour that is still chic but more straightforward and somehow still casual,” designer Tom Ford wrote in his self-penned show notes. Indeed, there is something very LA about the athleisure silhouettes, however the execution errs more on the Studio 54 side. In his show notes, Ford also reflects on the way social media has shaped our outfit choices. “Increasingly people don’t dress in fashion for day but only for night. Or for social media. Instagram may actually be what saves fashion in the end,” he wrote. “Black doesn’t photograph well and so clothes need to be increasingly cartoon-like to have power on the tiny screens of our phones. It is altering our perception of beauty. It has certainly altered mine.”
Made for photographing, the Tom Ford Spring 2022 Ready-To-Wear collection marries straightforward cuts with high-octane glamour, with masses of gold lamé, colourful sequins, high-shine satin, and a touch of velour. “Photogenic clothes today by their very nature mean that they are not at all timid… My clothes this season are simple in cut but not in impact,” Ford writes of the collection in his show notes. In the words of the legendary and always-quotable late Harper’s Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland, he asks “I know it’s a lot but is it enough?”
Translating a couture mindset to athleisure shapes works for Ford, and to be sure; it is enough. But when it comes to Tom Ford, too much is never enough.
Words by Theo Rosen