Over the course of the last few weeks, if you’re lucky enough to be able to work from home, it’s pretty likely you’ll have been spending a considerable amount of time on Google Hangouts, logged in to Zoom meetings, or making the most of Saturday night via endlessly chaotic Houseparty chats.
While admittedly great at keeping us connected at a time so many of us are isolated inside our homes away from each other, the almost universally felt downside of using them is, sadly, just how often we’re confronted by our own blue light-bathed, potato-esque faces peering back at us as we try to concentrate on the task at hand.
Good and obviously incredibly important news, then, that Tom Ford – a man who we cannot believe has ever looked bad in his life – has revealed a series of tips fo take you from starchy cupboard staple to super-sexy in around sixty seconds.
As told to The New York Times journalist Maureen Dowd as she nervously prepared to interview Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David via FaceTime, ‘lighting sensei’ Ford told her to “Put the computer up on a stack of books so the camera is slightly higher than your head. Say, about the top of your head. And then point it down into your eyes.”
So far, so straightforward: but it’s where he goes from here that will elevate your Houseparty game to a previously unimaginable level.
“Take a tall lamp and set it next to the computer on the side of your face you feel is best. The lamp should be in line with and slightly behind the computer so the light falls nicely on your face,” the legendary designer continues, presumably typing with one hand and elegantly sipping a quarantini in the other.
Lastly, Ford advises you “put a piece of white paper or a white tablecloth on the table you are sitting at, but make sure it can’t be seen in the frame. It will give you a bit of fill and bounce. And lots of powder, et voila!” Slightly extra, sure: but what else are you doing with your time right now? Exactly.