Tom Ford Aftershave & Men's Fragrance

Tom Ford is an American fashion designer who is best known for his work with Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent as well as his own fashion house and fragrance line. Ford grew up in the american south but moved to New York to go to university. He studied art history at NYU but left the school after just a year. He made ends meet by acting in commercials until he could get into the exclusive Parsons School of Design, part of New York’s prestigious New School to study architecture and then went off to Paris where he worked at Chloé as an intern. After graduating Ford began looking for work in fashion and first design job was at a small sports company where he worked as a design assistant in the late 80's, having practically forced his way in by calling them every day for over a month. Due to his friendship with designer Marc Jacobs he later got a job at Perry Ellis where Jacobs was head designer but after a few years, growing tired of New York and American fashion in general, Ford started yearning for Europe. He was able to secure a position at Gucci and made his way to Italy.

While Gucci is a huge brand today, the brand was really struggling when Ford arrived. The house was severely mismanaged, unpopular and loosing millions. He worked his way up through the ranks and as creative director famously managed to turn the sinking ship around, more than doubling sales over a few years. Under Fords creative leadership Gucci regained its past glory and became a market leader. The fashion house eventually got big enough to acquire Yves Saint Laurent and creative control of the legendary French brand was handed over to Ford which apparently wasn't too popular with Yves himself, due his dislike of Fords designs and often controversial advertising campaigns. After a long power struggle Ford was pushed out of the Gucci Group in 2004 and lost both his positions.

Not one to give up easily, Ford soon launched his very own self-titled brand in 2005. Initially trading on his Gucci and YSL laurels, Ford's new company soon established itself as a luxury brand and expanded from fashion to glasses, fragrances and beauty products. Ford indulged in the sleek but sexy looks he is known for and also made clothes for notables like Tom Hanks, Daniel Craig and Will Smith. The first Tom Ford fragrance was created in 2006 and named Black Orchid. The scent has been a huge success and although initially marketed for women it has got quite a following among men with actor Eddie Redmayne among others admitting it's his signature. The first Tom Ford mens' fragrance was simply entitled Tom Ford for Men (2007), a fresh and woody musk scent with notes including ginger, lemon, bergamot and tobacco leaf. Noir (2012) is a multi-layered aromatic evening scent that is meant to compliment the women's scent Violet Blonde. Through his luxurious Tom Ford Private Blend collection Ford has been able to indulge in truly premium scents and some of the most popular choices for men are Tobacco Oud (2013) and Tuscan Leather (2013).

Tom Ford hasn't stopped at fashion, fragrances and eye wear. In 2009 he directed his first feature film; “A Single Man” starring Colin Firth which won several awards and was nominated for an Oscar.