Tom Ford (born August 27, 1961 in
Austin, Texas), is an American fashion designer.
He is considered onetom ford of the most famous
and influential designers ever.
After graduating
from the Parsons School of Design in 1986, initially
having studied architecture, he took design jobs
with Cathy Hardwick and Perry Ellis. In 1990,
Gucci's creative director Dawn Mello recruited
him to design women's ready-to-wear, and later
Ford moved on and became the chief director for
Gucci. By 1999, Ford had brought Gucci from an
almost bankrupt business to a fashion power worth
4.3 billion dollars. When Gucci acquired the house
of Yves Saint Laurent, Ford was named the creative
director of that label as well. In 2004, Ford
stepped down from both of his positions, with
talks about wanting to direct films.
Openly gay, Ford considers himself married to his partner of nearly two decades, Richard Buckley (1948- ), a fashion and style journalist who resigned on 4 February 2005 as editor in chief of the magazine "Vogue Hommes International". Ford has mentioned in an interview that he would like to have children, but that Buckley is against the idea.
Noted for his interest in modern architecture, Ford has commissioned houses from the Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza and the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
