Tom Ford

 ( 1961 Births ) 

In 1988, Ford moved to Perry Ellis, where he knew both Robert McDonald, the company's president, and Marc Jacobs, its designer, socially. He worked at the company for two years, but grew tired of working in American fashion. In a later interview with The New York Times, he commented, "If I was ever going to become a good designer, I had to leave America. My own culture was inhibiting me. Too much style in America is tacky. It's looked down upon to be too stylish. Europeans, however, appreciate style."

At the time, Italian fashion house Gucci was struggling financially and was seeking to strengthen its women's ready-to-wear presence as a part of a brand overhaul. The company's creative director, Dawn Mello said, "no one would dream of wearing Gucci". In 1990, Mello hired Ford as the brand's chief women's ready-to-wear designer and Ford moved to Milan. "I was talking to a lot of people, and most didn't want the job," Mello said. "For an American designer to move to Italy to join a company that was far from being a brand would have been pretty risky." Ford and his longtime partner, fashion journalist Richard Buckley, relocated to Milan that September.

Ford's role at Gucci rapidly expanded; he was designing menswear within six months, and shoes soon after that. When Richard Lambertson left as design director in 1992, Ford took over his position, heading the brand's ready-to-wear, Aroma compound, image, advertising, and store design. In 1993, when he was in charge of designing eleven product lines, Ford worked eighteen-hour days. During these years, there were creative tensions between Ford and Maurizio Gucci, the company's chairman and 50% owner. According to Mello, "Maurizio always wanted everything to be round and brown, and Tom wanted to make it square and black." Though Maurizio Gucci wanted to fire Ford, Domenico De Sole insisted that he remain. Nonetheless, Ford's work during the early 1990s was primarily behind the scenes; his contributions to Gucci were overshadowed by those of Mello, who was the company's public face.

When Gucci acquired the house of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) in 1999, Ford was named Creative Director of that label as well. Saint Laurent did not hide his displeasure with Ford's designs, stating "The poor man does what he can." During his time as creative director for YSL, Ford nonetheless won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. Ford was able to pull the classic fashion house back into the mainstream. His advertising campaigns for the YSL fragrances Opium (with a red-haired Sophie Dahl naked wearing only a necklace and Stiletto heel heels in a sexually suggestive pose) and YSL M7 (with martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber in complete full-frontal nudity) were Controversy and provocative.

In April 2004, Ford parted ways with the Gucci group after he and CEO Domenico de Sole, who is credited as Ford's partner in Gucci's success, failed to agree with Kering's boss over control of the Group. He has since referred to this experience as "devastating" and as a "midlife crisis" because he had "put everything into that for fifteen years". When Ford left in 2004, Gucci Group was valued at $10 billion. Four people were hired to split the work Ford had done.

Michelle Obama wore an ivory floor-length evening gown designed by Ford to Buckingham Palace in 2011. He has also dressed Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Craig, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Ryan Gosling, Will Smith, Julianne Moore, Hugh Jackman, Jon Hamm, and Henry Cavill. Ford designed Daniel Craig's suits for his final four James Bond films: Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021).

In 2013, Ford was mentioned in Justin Timberlake's song "Suit & Tie", which was a collaboration with Jay-Z; he created the suits, shirts, and accessories for the Grammy-winning music video. He went on to dress Timberlake's 20/20 Experience World Tour, designing over 600 pieces for the tour. The same year, Jay-Z released the song "Tom Ford". Ford responded that he was flattered and "it means that one has really penetrated and made an impact on popular culture." Following the song's release, Ford received a huge spike in online search engine queries. The song would go on to sell over a million copies and become certified platinum.

In November 2022, the Tom Ford beauty brand was purchased by Estée Lauder for $2.8 billion. Forbes estimated that Ford would earn $1.1 billion from the deal. The following April, Ford stepped down as the brand's creative director and was succeeded by designer Peter Hawkings. The Tom Ford brand is now owned by The Estée Lauder Companies while the fashion business is owned by the Ermenegildo Zegna Group through Tom Ford International.

Responding to criticism that he objectified women, Ford stated he is an "equal opportunity objectifier" and is "just as happy to objectify men". He argued "you can't show male nudity in our culture in the way you can show female nudity" and pointed out that he did a male nude ad while at Yves Saint Laurent which got pulled.

In 2014, Ford released a new product called the Penis Pendant Necklace. The product caused some controversy, with Christians calling it offensive due to the pendant being shaped similar to a Christian cross or crucifix. Ford replied that "it was not meant to be a cross, it was a phallus" and "people read into things what they want to".

In 2022, Ford criticized the Met Gala, stating the event had "turned into a costume party".