WORLD OF FASHION Innovative designer takes final runway bow

The future of the charismatic designer is up for speculation as he splits with famed fashion house.
KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
MILAN -- The applause began with the finale's first white gown, an updated version of a slithery Gucci hit from 1996. By the time the designer emerged for his final bow, the ovation had crescendoed to a roar worthy of La Scala, pink rose petals raining from above and the crowd of more than 1,000 on its feet and cheering.
Tom Ford, fashion's most charismatic star, had just taken his last walk down the runway at Gucci.
Since Ford announced in November that he would leave the gold-plated brand when his contract expires April 30, the fashion world has talked of little else. Together with Gucci chief executive Domenico De Sole, the native Texan transformed a dusty status label with $200 million in annual revenue and a history of family feuding into a $3 billion luxury conglomerate dubbed by trade paper DNR "the It Brand of the decade."
Moreover, the darkly handsome Ford has come to personify the notion of fashion designer as celebrity -- as glamorously sexy and closely scrutinized as any of the famous women he dresses,
Echoing general industry sentiment, Vogue editor Anna Wintour called the departure of Ford and De Sole "a catastrophe."
The split comes at what most would agree is the height of Ford's career and power as a tastemaker and provocateur -- and of Gucci's fashion heat. With characteristic boldness, Ford, 42, and De Sole, 59, opted out of the company rather than submit to control by Gucci Group's Paris-based parent, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute.
Wants independence
The months-long negotiations riveted fashion followers and Wall Street traders alike but ultimately broke down over the question of managerial independence and whether Ford could oversee multiple collections. Since 2000, he also has served as creative director for the French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, acquired by Gucci Group in 1999.
"Together, Tom and Dom reinvented the word 'luxury' as it related to fashion," said Dawn Mello, who served as Gucci's creative director in the early 1990s.
Born in Austin and raised in Santa Fe, Ford initially attempted an acting career in Los Angeles, but eventually landed in New York City and Parsons School of Design. After earning a degree in interior architecture, he turned instead to fashion. With characteristic drive, he put together a portfolio and began pestering potential employers. Contemporary sportswear designer Cathy Hardwick was one of the few who agreed to see him.
"What I saw was heaven," Hardwick remembered in 1995, when Ford received his first International Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "He had such a fantastic presence, a beautiful face and elegant hands. I hired him 10 minutes later!"
Ford joined Gucci in 1990, cherry-picked by newly installed Gucci head Mello from a post at junior sportswear label Perry Ellis America, where he'd been hired away from Hardwick by his friend, Marc Jacobs. The venerable Italian label was all but bankrupt, beset by years of family power struggles and scandals to rival Dynasty or Dallas. It wouldn't stay that way long.
Renaissance begins
Soon, shelves once stocked with stiff loafers, floppy silk scarves and dusty wallets bought only by tourists too dumb to know better were swept clean. In came supple moccasins in mouthwatering, gelato-colored suede, scarf-print silk blouses and bamboo-handled satin bags sought by every style seeker smart enough to spot a hit. The renaissance had begun.
By the time Mello left in 1994 to return to Bergdorf Goodman, Maurizio Gucci was out (later murdered by his ex-wife), De Sole was in, and Ford had hit his stride. A towering stiletto he sculpted from a horse-bit loafer launched the fashion phenomenon known as the waiting list -- and all but buried comfortable shoes for the next 10 years. By 1995, Ford was responsible for 11 product categories, including fragrance, accessories and menswear.
Velvet suits with low-slung pants and skinny satin blouses in sapphire, hot pink and siren red. White jersey gowns with amoeba-shaped keyholes at the waist or hip. Faded denim jeans sporting feathers and beads and four-figure price tags. Ford's hits didn't just make it onto the backs of supermodels and celebrities. Imitations showed up almost overnight at every mall in America.
Absolute control
Above all, Ford exerted absolute control over every facet of the Gucci image. His reach extended from shaping the look of stores, including a remodeled location at the Dallas Galleria, to vetoing the color of the cellophane wrapped around a perfume box.
The looming questions now: Where will Ford's talents take him next, and can lightning possibly strike twice at Gucci?
In the case of Ford, the next stop appears to be Hollywood. His earliest ambition was to act. And as long ago as 1995, he voiced aspirations to direct.
Still, the idea of a complete departure from fashion seems unthinkable to many of those who have followed Ford's career.