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RUNWAY: As if anyone needed further proof that Tom Ford is a veritable Midas man, it was announced that Estée Lauder is in contract to buy the designer’s namesake brand for a staggering $2.8 billion dollars. It’s an investment, noted the cosmetics giant, in the expanding “luxury beauty” category.
Since emerging on the international scene at Gucci in the 1990s, Ford’s particular form of magic, building on his own image, perhaps, has been the bringing together a high-octane, often ’70s-leaning glamour with raw sexuality. At the time, this physicality charted a route away from the shoegazing waif. It was an invitation to look hot and celebrate—or manifest—good times.
After a dramatic departure from Gucci amid contract negotiations in 2004, Ford and his business partner Domenico De Sole launched the Tom Ford brand, which grew from accessories and beauty into a full fashion line, with sizzle. At his own line, Ford drew on the history of American fashion, and his own oeuvre, to create captivating and camera-ready designs for a digital age.
Here, looks from the designer’s namesake brand from the pages of Vogue.
