Ford spent most of the summer in Santa Fe either planning the construction or working on his book. The former designer says he enjoyed the opportunity to both reflect on the past and move on. "Going over it all was a great way to close a chapter in my life. And I wanted to do it now, while it was fresh."
The editing process took months. "With this book, the sheer volume of images was just incredible," he says. "One year alone, we had 12,456 pages of coverage. I had to go through all those images. The whole thing was very emotional. Usually, I'm not a person who dwells on the past. I say, okay, that's done, let's move on. But reliving it all, it all comes back to you—the amount of work, the struggles. But it was a nice way to say goodbye to it." After a short pause, Ford offers a bit of a tease: "I don't know whether it's goodbye forever. But it's goodbye for now."
At the moment, of course, it's hello, Hollywood. Now that Los Angeles has become his primary residence, Ford is somewhat begrudgingly building a guest house on the property. (Heretofore there hadn't even been a guest room.) Indeed, even invitations to dinner chez Ford are rare. "We have occasional small dinners, but I'm not big on having people in my houses," he says. Ford makes one exception annually, however, when he gives an Oscar week party for a few hundred.
Represented by über agent Bryan Lourd of CAA, he is actively trying to develop film projects and land a production deal. According to Ford, his career shift, from clothes to celluloid, is not such a stretch. Both are design businesses, he notes. "At Gucci, it was about creating a certain image and character—the Gucci woman. In the film business, you're designing a world. You're designing what happens to these people and what your message is. It's the same."
Lest anybody think someone from the garment biz would be way out of his depth in Hollywood, he notes that the fashion business is, in some ways, bigger than the film industry. Gucci, for example, had almost $3 billion in annual sales last year—more than any studio unit.
"I'm confident that my first film will be made—soon, I hope," says Ford. "If it's a hit, I'll have a career. If it's not…at least I'll have done it."
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