- Title: Fashion designer Tom Ford turns 60 on August 27
- Date: 26th August 2021
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - FEBRUARY 18, 2013) (REUTERS) TOM FORD LOGO OUTSIDE LANCASTER HOUSE, VENUE OF FORD'S DEBUT LONDON FASHION SHOW
- Embargoed: 9th September 2021 10:28
- Keywords: A Single Man CFDA chairman Gucci Nocturnal Animals Tom Ford Yves Saint Laurent fashion designer film director the Council of Fashion Designers of America
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA005ERX3Y31
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: American fashion designer and film director Tom Ford turns 60 years old on Friday (August 27).
Born Thomas Carlyle Ford in 1961 in Austin, Texas, Ford studied the history of art in New York, before dropping out and taking up interior architecture at college in the city.
He spent 18 months as an intern at French luxury fashion house Chloe's press office in Paris, before returning to the United States to graduate with a degree in architecture.
The budding fashion designer worked for American labels Cathy Hardwick and Perry Ellis in the late 1980s, before eventually moving to the Italian fashion house Gucci in Milan in 1990.
Beginning in women's ready-to-wear fashion, Ford moved quickly up through the ranks to become creative director of Gucci in 1994, as well as creative director of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) in 1999 when Gucci bought the luxury fashion brand. He is "admired for his exceptional tailoring and design aesthetic", according to fashion magazine Vogue.
His high-profile departure from Gucci in 2004 shocked the industry, namely as he was credited for bringing the once-obscure label back to the fashion forefront with his sexy sleek looks, worn by the Hollywood set.
The designer soon launched a line of menswear, beauty, eyewear, and accessories in 2005, naming it after himself, and opened Tom Ford stores over the next few years in New York, Milan, and London. He also dressed then-First Lady Michelle Obama in 2011 in one of his custom-made gowns for a state visit to London with the British Royal Family.
Ford often spoke about his ambition to work in film, even appearing in a cameo in fashion comedy "Zoolander" in 2001.
In 2009, the designer turned screenwriter-director to work with Hollywood A-listers Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Matthew Goode on "A Single Man", a film about an English professor struggling to cope with the sudden death of his boyfriend.
In 2016, Ford returned to directing, co-writing the screenplay for "Nocturnal Animals", starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon.
As chairman of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), Ford is now focussing on rebuilding the American fashion industry after the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He lives in California with his husband, journalist Richard Buckley, and their eight-year-old son Jack.
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