Marjan Jonkman photographed by Ezra Petronio.

Inside Ezra Petronio’s World of Stylistics

By Ernesto Macias and Sam Ford

Photographed by Ezra Petronio

January 6, 2022

Ezra Petronio has earned a reputation for putting the sharpest minds in fashion and art in one place. Since 1994, that place has been Self-Service Magazine, the arts and fashion publication that Petronio founded and still edits, which presents a highly-curated selection of creative talents in the pages of its annual issues. As the man behind the magazine, Petronio built his career unearthing new and unexplored sides of his subjects in written and visual form—in fact, he has over 4,000 Polaroids, taken since Self-Service’s founding, in his archive.

The Business of Being Tom Ford / A Return to Womenswear and The Future Part II

Tom Ford

The Business of Being Tom Ford: A Return to Womenswear and The Future

Part II

BY IMRAN AMED 27 SEPTEMBER, 2013

In Part 2 of a special interview to accompany the launch of the BoF 500, Imran Amed sits down with the one and only Tom Ford to understand how he built his own brand — projected to soon turn over $1 billion a year at retail — and the lessons he has learned along the way.

Tom Ford | Photo: Simon Perry

LONDON, United Kingdom — It was not long before Ford jumped back into the fashion mix, but surprising observers again, he started with menswear.

“[Menswear] is a detail-driven business. It really is about the fabrics, or the make, or the buttonholes, or the lapels. At the designer level, it is a very, very different business than women’s,” he says. “So I thought ‘OK, I am ready to go back to fashion,’ and this is a kindler, gentler way to do it.”

Imran Amed / The Business of Being Tom Ford I

Tom Ford | Photo: Simon Perry

The Business of Being Tom Ford

Part I 

BY IMRAN AMED 26 SEPTEMBER, 2013

To accompany the launch of the BoF 500, Imran Amed sits down with the one and only Tom Ford to understand how he built his own brand — projected to soon turn over $1 billion a year at retail — and the lessons he has learned along the way.

LONDON, United Kingdom — “It’s much, much, much harder starting from scratch,” says Tom Ford on launching his own brand. Fresh off a trans-Atlantic flight, but still looking every part the superstar designer, Ford is immaculate in one of his dark, signature, peaked-lapel suits, with a blue tie and white shirt, fastened at the neck by a gold collar pin, all offset by glowing skin and perfectly manicured stubble. “I didn’t have any idea how hard it would be, and I have had every advantage that anyone could possibly have.”

Tom Ford

Ford Explorer

By Jacob Bernstein

December 27, 2004

Can we ever really know Tom Ford, no matter how much he tells us about himself? Since announcing that he was leaving Gucci last spring to pursue a career in Hollywood, Ford has given extensive interviews to the New York Times, W, Index, GQ, Arena, i-D, and Vogue. And lately he’s been promoting his book, Tom Ford. But it turns out he’s not always so easy to read. Some selected quotes from fashion’s international playboy—and man of not-insignificant mystery.

Tom Ford on Sluttiness

“Just look at the Paris Hilton phenomenon and the way every other teenager looks like a prostitute. We’re still trading on that whole flash thing, and for me the Paris Hilton thing is almost an evolution too far of that.” (i-D)

“If sluttiness is what you like, what’s wrong with that? Why do we think being a slut’s bad? Sluttiness is just a lot of freedom.” (GQ)

Tom Ford on Fun

“I’m a very serious person. Fun isn’t a word I think about so much.” (i-D)

“I’m very silly. I like to just have fun and be silly and say pretty much whatever comes into my mind, do pretty much whatever I want.” (GQ)

Tom Ford on Monogamy

“My own sex life is very monogamous and happy … just a happy married sex life! Next question.” (i-D)

“I think that monogamy is artificial. I do not think it’s something that comes naturally to us … The relationship I’ve been in for 18 years—I don’t even want to get into this because he’s going to read this and I’m going to be in so much shit!” (Arena)

(To GQ interviewer) “You’re adorable … You want us to get a room … I’ll go get a room … We can do the rest of the interview naked.”

NEW YORK