>> After a month's worth of rumors and a noticeable uptick in his Yves Saint Laurent womenswear designs making appearances during Fashion Month, Tom Ford has confirmed that he plans to launch a signature women's collection "very soon" — according to WWD's sources, he's looking for a Fall 2010 launch, assuming that financing — he's estimated to be looking for at least $50 million — comes through. Ford notes:

Financing is extremely expensive right now, so if we find financing in the right situation we’ll be able to start [a women’s collection] soon. If we don’t, we may have to wait a while . . . You know it will take me 18 months when I start, because [I have] to hire the team, find the factories, put everything together and then get the stores ready so there’s a place for these clothes.

He also hinted at the new film he's working on, which he's writing "from scratch," whereas A Single Man was an adaptation: “I’ll need to make my next movie in London because that’s where my design studio is, and it was a little hard making [A Single Man] in LA because my design team had to come with suitcases full of clothes on the weekends for fittings."

As for the Oscar buzz A Single Man is receiving: “I’m crossing my fingers and touching wood. You never know. If that happens, great. If it doesn’t happen, I’m very, very happy with the response that we’ve had.”