![]() Over the course of the decade, Ford served as Gucci's driving force (1994-2004), and the company's annual sales increased from $230 million to $3 billion.Īfter French multinational Pinault Printemps Redoute bought Gucci in 2004, Ford resigned from the company. Under Ford's leadership, Gucci acquired the venerable French brand Yves Saint Laurent, fueling remarkable growth in the company's sales. He expanded the company into a host of new ventures, including men's and women's sportswear, eveningwear and home furnishings. He ascended quickly through the company's ranks, rising to Design Director in 1992 and to Creative Director in 1994.įord completely revamped Gucci's image - replacing the minimalism of the early 1990s with updated retro looks that oozed sex appeal. Ford instantly breathed new life into Gucci. At the time, the exalted leather company was hampered by management infighting and a struggle to keep up with market trends. ![]() Then in 1990, Ford moved to Milan to assume the role of Womenswear Designer for Gucci. Hardwick offered Ford a job, and after two years as Hardwick's design assistant, Ford landed a job designing jeans for Perry Ellis on New York's Seventh Avenue. He said, 'Armani and Chanel.' Months later I asked him why he said that, and he said, 'Because you were wearing something Armani.'" Gucci Prodigy ![]() I asked him who his favorite European designers were. (He had been calling from the lobby.) Hardwick recalls their memorable first meeting: "I had every intention of giving him no hope. Just under two minutes later, Ford arrived in her office. Hoping to finally get rid of this annoying caller, Hardwick herself finally answered the phone and asked Ford how soon he could take a meeting. Ford called Hardwick's office every day for a month straight. In 1985, after graduating from Parsons, Ford sought to land a job with prominent sportswear designer Cathy Hardwick. So I realized that fashion was the right balance between art and commerce, and that was it." I mean, every architectural project I ever did, I worked a dress into it somehow. He recalls, "I just woke up one morning and thought, 'What am I doing?' Architecture was just way too. Ford then transferred to Parsons' Paris campus, and it was while completing his final year of architecture study there that he suddenly decided to switch to fashion. A few years later, he moved back to New York and enrolled in the Parsons School of Design, studying architecture. In 1980, after just one year at NYU, Ford dropped out and moved to Los Angeles, where he made a living acting in television commercials. While at NYU, Ford became a regular at the infamous Studio 54 nightclub, and his studies suffered. He graduated at age 17, and then enrolled at New York University in 1979 as an art history major. "So there's a certain flashiness at Gucci-Texas-inspired-with a certain Western feel." Design Educationįord's family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Ford attended high school at the prestigious Santa Fe Preparatory School. "The images of beauty you get in your childhood stick with you for life," Ford later explained. "My paternal grandmother was very stylish in a very Texas way-everything big and flashy, from jewelry to car." Ford would later combine those two styles as he reinvented Gucci's image in the mid-1990s. "My mother was very chic, very classic," he recalls. If I wanted art lessons, they found paint and a teacher."įord had two early role models in fashion: his mother and grandmother. But if my parents went out to dinner and left me alone, I would rearrange all the living room furniture before they came back home." Ford says that his parents "encouraged me to do anything. "I don't mean that I sat around at age 5 sketching clothes. "I was always very visual, always interested in design," he recalls. Ford also took an early interest in art and painting. His favorite childhood pastimes included lying out by his grandparents' pool and visiting Ralph the Swimming Pig - a popular tourist attraction in nearby Aquarena Springs. ![]() and Shirley Bunton, both worked as real estate agents, and Ford spent much of his childhood at his grandparents' ranch in the dusty town of Brownwood, Texas. Early Lifeįashion designer Thomas Carlyle Ford was born on August 27, 1961, in Austin, Texas. Since resigning from Gucci in 2005, Ford has launched his own fashion brand and he also directed several movies. Under Ford's direction, Gucci's annual sales grew to $3 billion. He became Womenswear Designer for Gucci in 1990 and Creative Director in 1994. While studying architecture at the Paris campus of the Parsons School of Design, Tom Ford decided to switch to fashion.
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