Tom Ford SS19 Review – Tom Ford SS19 Collection

How do you design clothes when the world is on fire? Sitting down to Tom Ford’s spring 2019 fashion show at the Park Avenue Armory—the lighting dimmed, the bass thumping, the dresses tight tight tight—felt like entering a different world after yet another relentless day in the Trumpian news cycle (the Kavanaugh hearings, the bombshell anonymous “resistance within the White House” op-ed in the Times, the ongoing migrant child separation crisis, and the list goes on).

However Sex and the City circa 2003 the vibe inside the show venue felt, Ford himself was feeling the whiplash too. “Given the harshness of the world, a softer color palette seemed right to me this season,” he said in a release. He showed filmy, gauze-y, body-hugging pencil skirts and tops accentuated with thick croc belts, silk tuxedo jackets, fluffy marabou jackets, and a series of fringed and caped evening wear looks destined for the red carpet. It was signature Tom Ford sex appeal, but with the dial turned down. It all felt a bit muted. “I feel that fashion has somehow lost its way,” he wrote in the show notes, “and it is easy for all of us to be swept up in trends…I did not want to make clothes that were ironic, or clever, but simply clothes that were beautiful.”