Tom Ford thinks happiness doesn’t exist.
The 58-year-old fashion designer claims the emotion is "stupid" and says he has always been "dysthymic", which the American Psychiatric Association defines as maintaining a depressed mood most of the time for at least two years.
Tom told US Vogue: "I’ve always been somewhat dysthymic, you know. I sort of operate at a slightly lower mood. I always felt that if you’re happy, you’re just stupid. I still think happiness doesn’t exist and that if we all didn’t expect it to exist, we would be a lot happier."
Tom – who has been sober for 10 years – also revealed that he used to worry he wouldn’t be creative if he gave up alcohol or drugs.
He explained: "Drinking and drugs fueled many of my most creative moments, and I had an incredible fear that once I was sober I would not be able to create. It takes some time to get yourself back.
"We shift our addictions, and now my addiction is work, but it brings me enormous pleasure. And it keeps my mind from the fact that we are this tiny speck of a planet in the middle of an infinite number of other planets, and everything we have, what does any of it mean? Why do we struggle, why do we suffer? If I start down that road, it’s like, guess what? I think I’ll do something really important and choose the new lipstick colours for 2021."
Tom – who has son Jack, six, with husband Richard Buckley – also revealed that he wears the same thing every day and hasn’t washed his trousers in months.
He said: "I often feel like I’m dressed like I work in a shop, but I don’t have the energy, believe it or not, to put together a new look. And I know what works on me. Black, brown, gray. White for tennis. And by the way, these pants have probably not been dry-cleaned in months. I wear the same things day after day, I take them off at night and hang them up on a thing that nobody uses anymore, a valet de nuit. I put my jacket on it, I flip my pants over it, I dump my pockets out, and then the next morning, I get up and Jack’s running around, and I’ve got to get him to school. And so I just put it all back on."
Tom Ford: ‘Happiness doesn’t exist’
