Tom Ford by the numbers

Your cheat sheet to the designer who has his own Jay Z song
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Tom Ford
Photograph by Landmark-Media

Few living fashion designers have the cachet of Tom Ford. Before launching his eponymous line of womenswear, menswear, accessories, and cosmetics in 2004, he injected life back into the faltering houses of Gucci and Saint Laurent. Now the Texas-born designer—and sometime film director—is known for dressing Bond and Hollywood, splitting his time between London and L.A. This spring his swagger and sex appeal landed at a new store at the Shops Buckhead Atlanta. Here’s your cheat sheet to the designer who has his own Jay Z song.

13
Approximate length of a runway show and the number of minutes Yves Saint Laurent told Ford it took him to destroy the brand.

5
Baths Ford used to take a day, down to two since his son, Jack, was born in 2012.

$1 billion
How much the Tom Ford brand grosses annually.

Spectre
Photograph by Stephen Vaughan/©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

$4,086
Price of bespoke suit in Spectre opener.

16
Number of times Jay Z says “Tom Ford” in his 2013 song “Tom Ford.”

1995
Breakout year for Ford, when he put velvet hip huggers and silky, sultry, down-to-there tops on the Gucci runway, revitalizing the brand. Madonna famously wore the key look to the VMAs that year.

Gwyneth Paltrow
Photograph by Starmaxworldwide

1
Number of women he typically dresses for the Oscars each year. (Notables include Gwyneth Paltrow 2012 and Reese Witherspoon 2015.)

8
Number of Tom Ford stores in the U.S. (plus an outlet in upstate New York).

30
Years since Ford met his husband, journalist Richard Buckley.

$2.9 billion
How much Ford grew revenues for the then floundering Gucci as its creative director from 1994 to 2004—or around 11 times.

16
Collections Ford designed a year when heading up Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

48
Suit size, enabling him to be a fit model for his menswear designs.

A Single Man
Photograph by Eduard Grau/©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection

21
Days it took Ford to shoot his 2009 directorial debut, A Single Man, which garnered Colin Firth an Oscar nomination for his role.

$20 million
Amount Focus Features paid for the rights to Ford’s second film, Nocturnal Animals, starring Jake Gyllenhaal—by far the biggest deal brokered at Cannes last year.

16
Collections Ford designed a year when heading up Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

36
Hours it takes to make a Tom Ford suit.

2011
The year Michelle Obama wore an ivory Tom Ford gown—with elbow-topping white gloves—to a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, eliciting praise for her transatlantic choice.

This article originally appeared in our Spring/Summer 2016 issue of Style Book.

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