STYLE ETC.
Tom Ford
Born in Austin, Ford moves to New York to study art history at NYU. And then… briefly tries acting in Hollywood, landing a few commercials.
Perry Ellis, he lands a job in Milan with Gucci.
OLFACTORY NERVE TOM FORD WANTED HIS BEST-SELLING BLACK ORCHID TO SMELL “LIKE A MAN’S CROTCH.”
Pinault-PrintempsRedoute acquires Gucci Group; Ford leaves the company.
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With 124 stores and sales now past $1 billion per year, Ford lists his home in Santa Fe and returns to Hollywood. “Fashion is gone so quickly,” he says, “but film lasts forever.”
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Back in New York, Ford hangs out at Studio 54. Lightbulb moment! Ford enrolls at Parsons School of Design.
Working as a design assistant, he meets future husband (then WWD editor) Richard Buckley at a fashion show.
DEPARTURES.COM
19 9 0 Promoted to creative director of Gucci and overhauls the company’s branding.
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Gucci Group acquires YSL. After Ford’s debut YSL show in Paris, Laurent tells him: “In 13 minutes on the runway you have destroyed 40 years of my career.”
Ford is named one of People’s “50 Most Beautiful.”
2007
Launches own label; guestedits Vanity Fair and puts himself on the cover.
Releases Tom Ford book, writing: “I prefer people naked.”
Watershed fashion moments: Ford dresses Mrs. O and 007.
2009 A Single Man: Ford’s screenwriting and directing debut
Ford’s second film, Nocturnal Animals
KISS PROOF FORD’S METALLIC BERRY LIPSTICK NAMED AFTER DRAKE SOLD OUT IN FIVE MINUTES.
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2006
2017
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BUILT FORD TOUGH HIS ’60s-INSPIRED NATALIA BAG IS AVAILABLE IN PYTHON, ALLIGATOR, ANACONDA, BEAVER, AND, IN A NOD TO HIS TEXAS ROOTS, DENIM. After time at
How did the Texas native with movie-star looks reinvent Gucci (a template nearly every luxury house borrows), establish his own fashion empire, and then direct movie stars? Take a look at his résumé. b y J A S O N S HE E L E R
1979
Tom Ford becomes the preferred (and easiest to pronounce) label on the red carpet.
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Says of Melania Trump: “She’s not necessarily my image.” President Trump later says, “I’m not a fan of Tom Ford, never have been.”
Appears in own advertisement for the third time. “The product sells better with me in the ads.”
illustration by
K I R S T E N U LV E
Ford and Buckley’s son, Jack, is born.
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AUSTINARTIST/GETTY IMAGES (1979); ALLAN TANNENBAUM/GETTY IMAGES, OPOLJA/GETTY IMAGES (1980); RABBANI AND SOLIMENE PHOTOGRAPHY/WIREIMAGE (1986); GUY MARINEAU/CONDE NAST VIA GETTY IMAGES (1994); JOHN DOWNING/GETTY IMAGES (1999); THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY (2009); CHRIS JACKSON/WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES, FRANCOIS DUHAMEL/©COLUMBIA PICTURES/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION (2011); DAN MACMEDAN/WIREIMAGE, TONY BARSON/GETTY IMAGES, KARWAI TANG/WIREIMAGE, STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE, TAYLOR HILL/FILMMAGIC, JEMAL COUNTESS/WIREIMAGE (2013); JOHN LAMPARSKI/WIREIMAGE, FOCUS FEATURES (2016); CRAIG AURNESS/CORBIS/VCG (2017)
D E S I G N E R C .V.