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You Need To Know-Designer Tom Ford.

Thomas Carlyle "Tom" Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label.

Gucci and YSL creative director (1994–2004)

In 1994, Ford was promoted to creative director. In his first year at the helm, he was credited with putting the glamour back into fashion introducing Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots. In 1995, he brought in French stylist Carine Roitfeld and photographer Mario Testino to create a series of new, modern ad campaigns for the company. Between 1995 and 1996, sales at Gucci increased by 90%. On the strength of Ford’s collections, Gucci went public in October 1995 with an IPO of $22 per share, followed by an additional global offering in March 1996 at $48 per share and a third offering in 1999 at $75 per share. In early 1999, luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, headed by Bernard Arnault, increased its shareholdings in Gucci with a view to takeover. Domenico De Sole reacted by issuing new shares of stock in an effort to dilute the value of Arnault’s holdings. Ford and De Sole also approached French holding company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) about the possibility of forming a strategic alliance. Francois Pinault, the company’s founder, agreed to the idea and purchased 37 million shares in the company, or a 40% stake. Arnault’s share was diluted to 20%. At one point, Ford was the largest individual shareholder of Gucci stock and options.

By 1999, the house, which had been almost bankrupt when Ford joined, was valued at about $4.3 billion. When Ford left in 2004, Gucci Group was valued at $10 billion.

When Gucci acquired the house of Yves Saint-Laurent (YSL), Ford was named the creative director of that label as well. During his time as Creative Director for YSL, Ford won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. Like his work at Gucci, Ford was able to catapult the classic fashion house back into the mainstream. His advertising campaigns for the YSL fragrances Opium (with a red-haired Sophie Dahl completely naked wearing only a necklace and stiletto heels in a sexually suggestive pose) and YSL M7 (with martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber in complete full-frontal nudity) have been famous and provocative by pushing fragrance ads to a new level of creativity in artistic expression and commercial impact.

In April 2004, Ford parted ways with the Gucci group after he and CEO Domenico de Sole, who is credited as Ford's partner in the success story that is Gucci, failed to agree with PPR bosses over artistic control of the Group.

In March 2005, Ford announced the opening of his film production company, FADE TO BLACK. In 2009, Ford made his film directorial debut with A Single Man, which was based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. The film stars Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult and Matthew Goode. The screenplay was adapted by Ford and David Scearce. Ford also produced the film, which premiered on September 11, 2009 at the 66th Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Lion. Colin Firth, who plays the protagonist George, was awarded the Volpi Cup as Best Actor for his performance and was also nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award and Screen Actor's Guild award. He won the BAFTA for Best-Actor in a Leading role. Julianne Moore was nominated for Best Supporting actress and Abel Korzeniowski for Best Original Score at the Golden Globes. Tom Ford was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in 2009 including Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

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