Earlier this month Tom Ford spoke to Time Out Hong Kong - I found the interview both interesting and strange. I love Tom even more for it. x.

Via.

KW: For this spring summer you cast Liu Wen, Du Juan and Rinko on your catwalk. What made you gravitate towards them?

TF: Well, first of all, two of them are models and they are beautiful, and Rinko is an actress who I adore and I loved her in Babel. I've always been quite multicultural and it's funny that someone asked me in an interview yesterday if I had any Asian friends. I felt that was such a strange question. When you grown up in America, contrary to popular belief, we are racially blind because we've had Japanese and Chinese families, five generations, living in America. So we grow up with Asian-Americans, African-Americans, European-Americans. And I don't think she's my Asian friend. She's my beautiful friend, she's my dumb friend that asks me crazy shiii... she's my fabulous friend, she's my chic friend, she's my... I'm colourblind. When you do a fashion show it's very important and it's a responsibility to represent a multicultural cast.

KW: A friend who works at LVMH said of Liu Wen: 'She looks Caucasian because of her face, her straight nose, her cheekbones...' Do you think people regard these Chinese women as beautiful because of their perceived Western features?

TF: [Mildly irritated] No. I think, and don't take this the wrong way, all of your questions have a very odd racist slant, because you have grown up here. And don't take that the wrong way; it's not a negative thing at all. Honestly, growing up in America and Europe, I don't think as racially as the questions you are asking.

KW: Well, for one...

TF: [Interjecting] I had a journalist earlier ask me a question which, I had to say, found really shocking. He asked me if those flowers are fake. And I said, "No, they're not fake, they are real." He said, "I don't believe you." And he went over and looked. And I said, "They are cymbidium orchids wired to long stems because you can't get cymbidiums in long stems. But they are real." So he looked at them, came back and sat down. I said, "Why did you ask me if they were fake?" He said, "Well, you are American." [Laughs] I was like, "What does that mean?" He said, "Well, you know often Americans are very fake and you have fake things and so I thought they might be fake." And I said, "That's such a racist comment!" [Lowers voice] He was German.

Click here for the full interview.