How much is Tom Ford worth?
| Net Worth: | $400 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Fashion Designer |
| Date of Birth: | August 27, 1961 (age 61) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 6 ft (1.83 m) |
“As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be sold, marketed, used, and ultimately discarded.” Tom Ford
About Tom Ford
Having been in the industry for decades, Tom Ford is a fashion designer and infrequent movie director who is best known for launching his own luxury brand that began in 2006 after his tenure as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. He has worked with many of his favorite designers, being the head of everything from fragrances, images, advertising and the designs of the stores.
The fashion designer also directed two films, A Single Man and Nocturnal Animals, both of which have been nominated for Academy Awards. Ford is currently the Chairman of the board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
An avid collector of the art of Andy Warhol, Tom sold his Andy Warhol self-portrait for an estimated $32 million, after buying it for an estimated $15 million. He has earned an estimated $100 million through his various investments.
Ford is also an Oscar-nominated director for his debut film, A Single Man, the story of a grieving college professor in 1960s California, written by Christopher Isherwood. As Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent, Ford has won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America awards for his inspired designs.
Ford had never worked in fashion or even studied it by the time he graduated, as he was a student of architecture, but he knew it was the fashion industry he wanted to work in. Ford has claimed that he called the fashion designer Cathy Hardwick everyday for a month just to try and get a job. Hardwick eventually agreed to give him a job after he told her his favorite fashion designer was Armani, and he said that because Hardwick was wearing an Armani suit at the time. After being an assistant to Hardwick for two years, Ford left America, feeling that the style was too “tacky” and that his surroundings were inhibiting him.
It was in 1990 when Gucci, struggling as a company at the time, hired ford to become the brand’s chief women’s ready to wear designer in Milan. This is when Ford’s profile grew exponentially, as his work expanded in to menswear, and before too long, he was even designing the stores and creating the advertising campaigns. In 1994, the designer was promoted to the creative director of Gucci, and within two years of his new role, Gucci sales had increased by 90%. Ford had helped a company that was initially on the verge of bankruptcy reach a value of $4 billion.
After his tenure at Gucci, Ford joined Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, and then in 2006, he left to form his own eponymous company, which is now worth billions. Since then, Ford has become a staple in pop culture as he has been mentioned in songs by Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, with Jay-Z’s single, literally titled “Tom Ford”, going platinum. Ford saw a spike in sales on his website after the track dropped. The designer has gone on to dress some of the world’s most influential people, including Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Hugh Jackman, and many more. Ford even designed the suits for Daniel Craig in the last three James Bond movies.
Outside of the fashion world, Tom Ford has directed movies that have been nominated for several Academy Awards, starred A-list actors, and that are actually unrelated to the fashion world. His first movie, A Single Man, was released in 2009, stars Colin Firth, and is about a homosexual university professor living in South Carolina in the 1960s.
His follow up, Nocturnal Animals, is a psychological thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams, and is an adaptation of the 1993 novel, Tony and Susan. The director’s movies have been praised for the way they look and their presentations above all else, which isn’t surprising given his fashion background.
None of Ford’s salaries for his partnerships and role of creative director at several different companies are disclosed, but considering the sheer amount of money that the designer has single handedly made for all of them, it must be tens of millions of dollars.
In 2004, when Ford left the Gucci group, the company was valued at an estimated $10 billion dollars, and just 10 years before that it was worth nothing. Ford put so much work in to Gucci and worked 18 hours days, so when he left, his work literally had to be divided amongst four people. After launching his own brand in 2006, the company is now worth more than a billion dollars.
As well as his income from working with so many fashion brands including his own, Ford is also a real estate guru. He has a huge collection of properties, but his most important investment was an estimated $40 million mansion, which is located close to the Playboy Mansion. He also owned a 20,000 acre ranch in Santa Fe, which has its own Wild West town that was a filming location for 3:10 to Yuma and Thor. Ford sold the mammoth property for an estimated $75 million.
Ford has been named a fashion icon thanks to crazy ideas that seemingly miraculously pull has-been luxury designer brands back in to the forefront of the conversation, as his work with Gucci is now known as the golden era of the fashion house. He is best known for his “sexy” and provocative clothes and has been credited for bring sexy back. The fashion designer has been named the “straightest gay man in the world”. He has also found success through exposure by dressing some of the most important figures of today, and he loved for his bold statements.
However, Ford’s advertising campaigns have drawn controversy due to the sheer amount of nudity and sexual appeal that they feature. Some news outlets have claimed that Ford’s ads are borderline vulgar and that they objectify women. But the controversy only draws more publicity, helping him become more successful, and the controversy is now part of Ford’s brand, as he even went on to release a product called the “Penis Pendant Necklace”, which was in a similar shape to a crucifix.
Summing-Up
Ford’s success can be attributed to his charisma, because if it wasn’t for initially charming Cathy Hardwick, he may have never gotten in to the fashion industry in the first place. Thanks to his bold fashion statements, he managed to turn a company verging on bankruptcy in to a Italian fashion powerhouse, and he found his way to an estimated net worth of $400 million in the process. He has also been able to build an impressive real estate portfolio, which he has just recently added to by purchasing a an estimated $17 million mansion in London.
