Tom Ford pays tribute to Jay Z during London Fashion Week

LONDON (AP) — Tom Ford may be best known for his razor-sharp men’s suits and slinky womenswear, but the designer showed a humorous side Monday with a catwalk collection that played on his own fame and rapper Jay Z.

The designer’s catwalk, unveiled at London Fashion Week, featured sequined football jerseys emblazoned with the giant letters “TOM FORD 61.”

That’s a playful reference to Jay Z, who recorded a song called “Tom Ford” and wore a similar jersey — without the sequins — at his concerts. Versions of that jersey are now sold online, independent of the luxury design label. (61 refers to Ford’s year of birth.)

“I just took the knock off from online, and knocked it off,” Ford told The Associated Press after the show, which also featured black and red velvet dresses, sporty hoodies and animal print separates worn with high-heel boots.

Ford said the collection was about “modest luxury” as well as updates on 1960s’ shapes and the styles worn by women in the American West, where he grew up.

“The first dress was actually the same dress that Navajo Indian women have been wearing since the 1920s and still wear,” he said, referring to a black velvet dress that opened the show.

The designer grinned when asked why the collection seemed less overtly sexy as his previous creations.

“It’s a different kind of sexy,” he said. “The clothes are tight on the hip. You got to grab the body somewhere, and for me it’s all about the hip.”

Ford’s show was attended by actor Bradley Cooper, who wore a shirt, tie and jacket and sat in the front row of the darkened show space with his model girlfriend Suki Waterhouse.