Tom Ford
Over the past few years Tom Ford has become one of the top fashion designers not only in America but in the world. His name has become synonymous with sex, glamour, and the ultimate in luxury. Not only has he become extremely successful in the creation of his own Tom Ford brand selling clothing and accessories for men and women but he began his career revamping and reinvigorating two of the worlds most influential design houses.
After growing up in Texas Tom moved to New York to study interior architecture at Parsons The New School for Design. It wasn’t until his last year in school, when he was interning at Chloé in Paris that he fell in love with fashion. When he returned to school after the internship he studied fashion but nevertheless finished school with an architecture degree. After school he had brief stints at American design houses Cathy Hardwick and Perry Ellis but soon began to grow impatient with American fashion. He was famously quoted in the New York Times (after his burgeoning success) as saying “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.” It is at this point that we come to the beginning of his greatness. In 1990 Tom moved to Milan to take over as head of women’s ready-to-wear for Gucci, a brand that at the time no one would have been caught dead in. Within years Tom had revamped the brand’s lackluster appeal and made it the ‘it’ brand that was seen on celebrities and socialites around the world. In 1994 Tom became Creative Director of Gucci and his role expanded even more, this is when the true revamp of the company came with a new advertising campaign and a whole new feel. Shortly after he also became Creative Director for Yves Saint Laurent which Gucci Group had recently purchased and helped bring new life to the stagnant brand. Tom left Gucci Group after 14 years, and the company which was nearly bankrupt when he joined was then valued at nearly $10 Billion.
After his time at Gucci Group, and a short time off, Tom Ford launched his own fashion brand beginning small with fragrances and accessories, then designing menswear, and now finally culminating in women’s ready-to-wear. The brand is highly successful and Tom is expanding his portfolio now in other ways; he directed the movie A Single Man for which Colin Firth was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Tom Ford is a man of many talents and I am sure that we have yet to see the last of his enormous contributions to the fashion world.
