American fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford was BOTD in 1961. Born in Austin, Texas to a middle-class family, he grew up in suburban Houston and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Like many nascent fashion designers, began rearranging the family furniture in early childhood, giving his mother advice on her hairstyle and clothes. He moved to New York City to study at New York University, becoming a regular at famed nightclub Studio 54, where he was talent-spotted. He left college after his first year, working as a model for TV commercials while studying interior architecture at Parsons The New School for Design. After an internship at Parisian fashion house Chloé, he shifted his attention to fashion design. working for designers Cathy Hardwick, Perry Ellis and Marc Jacobs. In 1990, he moved to Italy to work as a women’s ready-to wear designer for Gucci. He quickly expanded his role into menswear and fragrances, and was promoted to creative director in 1994, revitalising the company’s fortunes. He later assumed creative directorship of Yves Saint Laurent, irritating Monsieur St Laurent with his opulent style and hyper-sexualised advertising. (“The poor man does what he can”, Saint-Laurent said of Ford’s efforts). After leaving Gucci in 2004, Ford opened his own fashion label, dressing First Lady Michelle Obama, numerous Hollywood celebrities and designing Daniel Craig’s wardrobe for the James Bond film franchise. The winner of numerous fashion industry awards, he was awarded the GLAAD Media Awards Vito Russo Award in 2007. In 2009, he wrote and directed his debut film A Single Man, a stylised but emotionally searing adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel about a middle-aged gay man grieving for his younger lover. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, it won the festival’s Queer Lion prize and numerous industry awards for its lead actor Colin Firth, who thanked Ford for encouraging him to lose weight for the role. Ford’s second film Nocturnal Animals was released in 2016, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, but failing to find a cinema audience. Ford married Vogue Hommes editor Richard Buckley in 2014, and had a son via a surrogate. They remained together until Buckley’s death in 2021. Ford lives in Santa Fe and London with his son; his current relationship status is unknown. He was played by Reeve Carney in Ridley Scott’s 2021 film House of Gucci.