Tom Ford

Tom Ford is an American fashion designer born in Austin, Texas in 1961, who studied architecture at Parsons before switching to fashion. He joined Gucci as womenswear designer in 1990 and was appointed creative director in 1994, inheriting a house that was close to bankruptcy and had lost creative direction entirely. Ford rebuilt Gucci around a precise and deliberately provocative aesthetic: slim tailoring, velvet suiting, satin shirts, low-slung trousers, cut-out dresses and a deep affinity for 1970s glamour. His advertising campaigns, shot by Mario Testino and styled by Carine Roitfeld, were as culturally significant as the collections themselves. When Gucci acquired Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, Ford was appointed creative director of YSL Rive Gauche simultaneously. At YSL his work drew on the house's bohemian femininity, gypsy references, peasant dresses and silk eveningwear while retaining the provocation that defined his Gucci years: deep plunging necklines, cut-out construction and an overt sensuality that ran through both houses. He departed the Gucci Group in 2004 and launched his own label the following year, later directing two critically acclaimed films, A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). His work at Gucci and YSL produces some of the most sought-after pieces in the archive fashion market today.