Tom Ford Bio

The 1990s saw designer Tom Ford achieve the status of being a household name by single-handedly relaunching the European fashion line Gucci and saving it from bankruptcy. Since his days as the creative director of Gucci and its sister line YSL, Tom launched his own fashion line in 2004 and made his film debut by directing the Oscar-nominated A Single Man.

Three Fun Things to Know About Tom Ford

• An avid collector of the art of Andy Warhol, Tom sold his Andy Warhol self-portrait for $32 million, after buying it for $15 million.
  

• Ford is an Oscar-nominated director for his debut film, A Single Man, the story of a grieving college professor in 1960s California, written by Christopher Isherwood.
  
• As Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent, he won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America awards for his inspired designs.
  

  From New York With Love

  
  With the lights of the Big Apple calling his name, Tom ditched the deserts of New Mexico for the glamour of New York when he was 16 in 1977. While attending Parsons University in Manhattan, Tom got his first taste of Disco at the infamous Studio 54, which fast become a second home for him. It was during his time at Studio 54 that Tom made two realizations that would affect the rest of his life: He admitted to himself he was gay and discovered his inner passion for fashion.
  
  His hunger for fashion led him to take a year-long internship in Paris with one of the world's leading ready-to-wear lines, Chloe. During his time at Chloe, he handled all incoming requests to the line for clothing to be worn on editorial photo shoots. He got to try his hand at styling looks by picking out what clothing would be sent out to the individual shoots.
  

  The Early Days

  
  Tom Ford's fashion career was almost dead in the water before it started. Upon his return to New York from Paris, he ended up graduating from Parsons with a degree in architecture--not something that inspired fashion houses to hire him.
  
  It was designer Cathy Hardwick who finally took a chance on a young Tom Ford after he called her office every day for a month straight. Despite the fact that Cathy had no real desire to hire him, Tom won her over by his intelligent answers to her questions.
  
  The next four years saw Tom jumping from Cathy Hardwick's fashion company to Perry Ellis, where he remained a design assistant. It was during these years Tom came to understanding that his taste in design had been deeply influenced by his time in Paris and was not suited to the American fashion scene of the late 1980s.
  

  Enter Gucci

  
  Yearning to return to the European fashion scene, Tom made the risky decision to apply for a lead design position at the nearly bankrupted fashion house Gucci. Dawn Mello, the creative director of Gucci in 1990, recalls that by the time Tom came along she was desperate to find a designer as no one wanted to come on board to a fashion house that looked like it was ready to go under at any minute.
  
  Dawn ended up hiring Tom as the lead designer for its women's ready-to-wear line, part of her effort to save a floundering Gucci. Little did she know what a creative powerhouse she had found in the unknown designer Tom Ford.
  
  Nearly half a decade later, under the patronage of then Gucci CEO Domenico de Sole, Tom made the transition from unknown designer to running eleven different design lines for Gucci from the ready-to-wear, to fragrances, to store design. Tom's official title was "design director." Most observers felt that Tom's efforts at Gucci overshadowed those of the house's owner Maurizio Gucci, son of Gucci's founder during this period.
  

  Tom, aka Creative Director

  
  Tom was officially named the Creative Director of Gucci in 1994, following the departure of Dawn Mello. True to his disco heritage, Tom started introducing velvet hip-hugging jeans, skinny satin shirts and his metallic boots, for which he holds a patent on the design. Coupled with these fresh designs, Tom began work with former editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld and photographer Marino Testino to design an international ad campaign that reflects Gucci's fresh modern collections.
  
  With Tom at the creative helm, Gucci once again reclaimed its place as a household name and was able to buy Yves Saint Laurent. Tom not only oversaw every design element at Gucci, but refreshed and relaunched YSL, as well. Under Tom, YSL became a leading fragrance maker with such world wide hits as YSL M7, which caused a major scandal with its full-frontal ad of Samuel de Cubber and was completely banned at one point in some European countries.
  
  Gucci saw sales jump 90% under the first year of Tom's creative control. Over the next decade--from 1995 to 2004--based on the popularity and strength of Tom's designs, Gucci went public, and doubled in value from a mere $4 billion in 1994 to over $10 billion in 2004 when Tom left Gucci.
  

  Tom Alone

  
  2004 saw Tom Ford leave Gucci over failed negotiations with majority shareholder of Gucci, PPR, over his creative direction. Not one to let anything stand in his way, in 2005 Tom opened his first store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The self-titled clothing store introduced a ready-to-wear men's line all produced by long time friend Emenegildo Zegna. All Tom Ford suits start at $2,000 and work their way upward.
  
  With such die-hard celebrity fans like Madonna and Trudie Styler (Sting's wife), who reportedly demanded a meeting with him after seeing a runway show in Paris, Tom's isn't leaving the fashion scene any time soon.
  

  "As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be sold, marketed, used, and ultimately discarded." Tom Ford