By LAURA M. HOLSON

It is a wonder that Tom Ford, the former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent who turned louche sexuality into high fashion in the 1990s, didn’t try his hand at directing a movie sooner.

On a recent Wednesday, Mr. Ford walked across a courtyard at the Beverly Hills Hotel to meet a guest for lunch. His stride was deliberate, arms slightly bent to frame his rigid torso. As he approached the table, he removed his tea-colored sunglasses. He smelled like vanilla bean. Slipping into his seat, he tipped his chin to his left shoulder - a conscious gesture to highlight his best side, he later volunteered.

Played for visual impact, it was a moment much like a scene in his directorial debut, “A Single Man,” where the main character, George Falconer, meticulously arranges a suit and tie to wear to a funeral.

Mr. Ford’s most riveting creation - more than the velvet hip-huggers he introduced in 1994 or the Opium perfume ad from 2001 featuring a writhing, naked Sophie Dahl - is his public persona. So much so, he said, that friends have told him they are surprised that someone so seemingly calculated could make such a soulful film.

Mr. Ford isn’t one to show hurt feelings. “I think of myself as a product,” he said. But clearly such slights sting.

“I had one friend whom I’ve known for 15 years who said, ‘I’ve always thought of you as a beautiful black lacquered box with a platinum handle from the 1920s, but I never knew there was anything inside the box,’ ” Mr. Ford said. “I was, like, ‘You’ve been my friend, and you did not know there was anything more than the surface?’ ”

“A Single Man,” which opened in limited United States release December 11 and begins playing in other countries in February and March, has won plaudits from critics, particularly for Colin Firth’s portrayal of George, a 1960s gay professor who contemplates suicide after his longtime partner dies in an accident.

Such accolades are something of a triumph for Mr. Ford, who was forced to finance the nearly $7 million project with his own money, after leaving Gucci in 2004 and announcing that he would become an auteur. It was a transition some in fashion thought made perfect sense given his meticulous attention to surface - and others thought was doomed, for the same reason. Until the Weinstein Company picked up “A Single Man” at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it had no distributor.

For Mr. Ford to have a bona fide hit, the movie must appeal to as wide an audience as possible . If “A Single Man” manages to garner a few Oscar nominations, too, the attention could propel Mr. Ford back into the familiar role of cultural arbiter.

In the 1990s, he was arguably the most influential fashion designer of his generation, reimagining 1970s chic with unsubtle sex appeal. Under his guidance, the houses of Gucci and, later, Yves Saint Laurent flourished, with Mr. Ford overseeing every creative aspect - fashion, advertising, even store design . But after an argument with his bosses, he left Gucci.

The serious story of “A Single Man” - suicide, death, tragic romance - was a departure from the Tom Ford of Gucci who liked to provoke.

“When he first showed me the script I was shocked,” said Arianne Phillips, the movie’s costume designer. “If this was the movie Tom Ford ‘the director’ wanted to make, I did not know Tom Ford ‘the person.’ ”

Mr. Ford has spent so much of his life crafting his public persona, it leads one to wonder if this movie is another attempt at rebranding Tom Ford, the product. He insisted, “It was the least calculated thing I’ve ever done.”


After resigning as creative director at Gucci, Tom Ford financed “A Single Man” himself. / EDUARD GRAU/WEINSTEIN COMPANY