Throwback Thursday: Tom Ford Is a Towel-Snapper

Photography by Terry Richardson

When you think of Tom Ford, it's hard not to think about sex. Over the course of a decade, the designer has become synonymous with the use of it in his ad campaigns and beyond.

Thanks to "a combination of his blistering good looks, his notorious ad campaigns, and the nonchalant ease with which he addresses it," as Aaron Hicklin writes in his November 2007 cover story about Ford. "Sex is just second nature with me," the designer explains. "It's not like an obsession or anything."

May be that's why he took it all off during his photo shoot.

"When I saw how I looked in a dressing gown in the showers with the guys it didn't look right," Ford recalls of the shoot. "It was like, Why would I be in the shower with those guys popping my towel in a dressing gown? So I just said, 'We have to reshoot this, and I have to get in there with them, because otherwise it's not right.' "

Now that the designer is married to Richard Buckley and a father of a young son, his brand retains its sensuality--but we may not see him jumping into the nude fray as quickly. In addition to expanding his own label, Ford went on to direct the Oscar-nominated film, A Single Man, starring Colin Firth and a relatively unknown Nicholas Hoult. His directorial debut was a hypnotic combination of design, class, and seduction.

While things may be more subtle now, Ford will forever be a stud in our eyes.