TOM FORD, The Backlash and Beyond

Was it all so predictable? When Gucci's former golden boy Tom Ford went out on his own everybody was looking for him to fail. Horacio Silva and Cathy Horn from the New York Times found it elitist and the service rude, as did Imran Amed of The Business of Fashion. The problem with fashion journalists covering luxury is that none of us is likely to ever come close to having enough money to shop the way these shoppers shop. No matter how many freebie or, in the case of the New York Times, discounted suits or couture dresses one gets to sample it just isn't the same as shelling out your own hard-earned (or inherited or married) money for them over a number of years. I have heard from people at Ford that the store is beating expectations and that on not-so-infrequent days it grosses $100,000.

Luxury today takes a very different shape. Going into a store and declaring it empty and therefore a failure is naive. Luxury stores like Tom's aren't the Gap, you can't track retail patterns by the odd shop visit. A fact I was recently reminded of in Moscow. The beautiful Luxury Village in the suburbs of Moscow was completely empty, and I mean completely empty, except for some architects looking at the Prada shop, the security guys at each store and the very, very bored sales staff. But everyone tells me that the mall does well because once a week some oligarch or their wife or their child or whatever comes in and drops six figures in six minutes. No matter how much experience one has writing about luxury, writers are still writers and the real shoppers just aren't like you and me. Of course the funny thing about Tom was that he used to be one of us -- a working stiff -- but with all of those Gucci stock options he's now one of them.

When Tom was London last week to launch his fragrance at Harvey Nichols the line of fans stretched down Knightsbridge. Tom was on hand to do what he does best, charm people and speak eloquently to Vogue.com about his vision. The sales proved he's still got pulling power. Harvey Nics completely sold out of two of the 12 fragrances (Tabac Vanille and Neroli Portofino) - and sold over 17,000 UK pounds (or $34,000) worth of Private Blend in under two hours. Now there's a real, tangible sign of the man's selling power. I love his idea of a unique fragrance for each city. What surer sign of status than a bottle of sold-in-St. Petersburg fragrance?

Sure, the store in New York is elitist (I haven't been yet, but I trust the reviews) and there are kinks to work out -- all new security was hired after a recent review. But Tom is no fool. The reason Gucci was a hit wasn't only his design talent, it was his ability to look at the numbers and switch tack immediately. Forget about dreams, loyalty, design purity; if it wasn't selling he'd stop doing it. You can call it cynical and commercial or you can call it respecting the customer. He doesn't look down on them, he takes them at their word, or at their credit card, rather. The real sign of if this store concept is working or not will be seen in the changes he makes when he opens future outlets. And if it's really not bringing in money, he will. It's his own money at stake this time around and swallowing pride to tweak the concept is a lot less painful than having to go back to work.

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