The very artistic, some would call, Renaissance Man, Tom Ford guest edited Vogue Paris December 2010 issue. There has been extensive press regarding the taste of Tom Ford’s issue. The arty editorial spread features prurient 7year old girls dressed up in gowns, adorned in diamonds and plastered in make-up. The tiny models were more stylish than the always-controversial excessively made-up children of beauty pageants but really what’s the difference? What was the artist trying to illustrate? Considering that it is the holiday issue, maybe Ford wanted to revive the materialist desire we develop as kids. If you add another seven years to the toddler models, they would be the same age as some of the super models that grace the pages of fashion publications (i.e. 15-year-old Daphne Groeneveld on the cover of the Vogue Paris issue) and high-end designers runways; so again, what’s the difference.
In contrast to the adolescents, the Ford's edited issue goes to the other extreme, with a fashion spread photographed by the designer himself entitled 'Forever Love'. Looking like characters straight out of the 80s popular show “Dynasty,” the “golden” aged models are photographed draped in diamonds and emeralds while being a bit frisky with each other. When asked about the geriatric jewelry spread, Tom explained “I am tired of the cult of youth. The cultural rejection of old age, the stigmatization of wrinkles, grey hair, of bodies furrowed by the years. I am fascinated by Diana Vreeland, Georgia O’Keeffe and Louise Bourgeois, women who have let time embrace them without ever cheating. Society today condemns this, me, I celebrate it. For this session of fine jewelry, I imagined a man and a woman who had been together for a long time, faithful to each other and always incandescent with desire.”
The issue also features another thought provoking photo spread with model and author Crystal Renn as a plastic surgery addict.
Whatever your thoughts on Tom Ford's Vogue Paris issue, the fact that so many people are talking about it including non-fashion types exemplifies his ubiquitous influence.
Check the photo gallery for a sneak look at the Vogue Paris December 2010 issue
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