Tyler Watamanuk on how a coffee-table book published twenty years ago is still as popular as ever.

Tom Ford by Tom Ford sounds like it could be a diffusion label, but it’s a massive coffee-table book published by Rizzoli in the mid-aughts, right after the lascivious American designer departed from Gucci. He was given author credit alongside powerhouse editor Bridget Foley. The one-two punch of coastal media elite Anna Wintour and Graydon Carter wrote the foreword and introduction. 

It remains in circulation today, where it has morphed into an empty object of decor as much as a 400-page printed book. And for that, you can probably thank TikTok, where “Tom Ford Book” has clocked nearly two billion views.

There is a diverse ecosystem of book-related content to scroll through. Some are unboxing videos and “how I styled it” videos made by the type of TikTokers with gray hardwood floors and affiliate-link Amazon storefronts. Others have posted videos of finding copies on the discount shelves of Home Goods, HomeSense, and T.J. Maxx, where the price is slashed from $140 to as low as $40. If that still feels too pricey, Etsy sells a $24 Tom Ford “book box” made from “first-class cardboard,” and other websites sell them for as low as $16. There are even several “DIY tutorials” showing how to make your own with black paint and IKEA boxes. (The decoy makes an excellent spot to hide remotes, apparently.)

When you search “Tom Ford book” on Bezos’ e-commerce behemoth, it appears next to sponsored listings for “decorative books for home decor books for coffee table” and cheaply made ceramic vases in the style made popular by Simone Bodmer-Turner. The book benefits from a perfect storm of aspirational yet achievable luxury, an algorithm boost, and optimized e-commerce. (The minimalist cover design and Tom Ford brand name don’t hurt.) The oversaturation has led to a wide-ranging appeal; you can also buy the brick directly from the fashion website SSENSE and Burke Decor or at your local Barnes & Noble and Pottery Barn. 

Ford is an interesting designer to have stumbled into an overwrought coffee-table tableau. (There is even a TikTok rant or two about the omnipresence of the book on the platform.) One might have expected a safer name to end up in the spot, but perhaps that is part of the appeal—a coffee-table book with a bit of danger. At Gucci, he frequently shocked and delighted the industry, turning the thong into an item worthy of the fashion runway and including highly stylized pubic hair in his advertisements. In an expansive interview given just last year, he told GQ a story about giving a blowjob in the back of a taxicab. (Relax, it was the 1970s!) As the Pottery Barn website notes: “This book contains some adult content that may not be suitable for younger ages.”

Still, all that hedonistic Tom Fordness lies tucked within the minimalist and expensive-looking cloth slipcase, out of sight and out of mind. The chic black cover and bold typography make for an innocuous design, a slick leather handbag for one’s coffee table, the kind you can wear without too much thought. This is perhaps the most significant selling proposition: you can have an inoffensive status symbol in a neat A3 paper-sized package. 

In less than three decades, consumer culture has gone from the human art of the coolhunt to an algorithm-driven monoculture. Even though this Tom Ford book was published closer to the era of the coolhunt, its current digital saturation point is a symptom of the latter. It’s also doing what a coffee-table book from one of the world’s biggest glossy publishers is supposed to do: sell as many of them as you can. At the very least, it should come in handily as a home security measure: A baseball bat only weighs two pounds—Tom Ford by Tom Ford weighs eleven.

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