In truly splendid news, Tom Ford has sold his brand to The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. for $2.8 billion. The sale takes one of the world’s biggest beauty companies into the world of luxury fashion.

Under the agreement, Ford will stay on as the brand’s creative director after closing and through the end of calendar 2023. Domenico De Sole, Chairman of Tom Ford International and Ford’s longtime business partner, will also stay on as a consultant through 2023.

The Ermenegildo Zegna Group has held the license to Tom Ford men’s apparel and footwear for the past 16 years. Estée Lauder’s announcement confirmed that this critical licensing partnership will remain in place, with Zegna expanding its reach into womenswear and accessories as well.

Eyewear group Marcolin has produced and distributed Tom Ford optical frames and sunglasses since 2005 and will also remain part of The Estée Lauder acquisition.

“We are incredibly proud of the success Tom Ford Beauty has achieved in luxury fragrance and makeup. As an owned brand, this strategic acquisition will unlock new opportunities and fortify our growth plans for Tom Ford Beauty.
It will also further help to propel our momentum in the promising category of luxury beauty for the long-term, while reaffirming our commitment to being the leading pure player in global prestige beauty.”
*– Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies*

Proud Americans

AOC reminds readers that both companies — and their founders — are part of a great patchwork of American talent, entrepreneurialism and very hard work.

In this moment when American voters have beaten back — but claim no victory over — the winds of Republican-party authoritarianism and Christian nationalism, we are joyous to celebrate the business marriage of a working class daughter born Josephine Ester Mentzer to Hungarian Jewish immigrants in Queens, New York in 1908 and Thomas Carlyle Ford born August 27, 1961 in Austin, Texas to realators Shirley Burton and Thomas David Ford.

The designer is an openly-gay father with a beloved son Alexander John Buckley Ford, born to Ford and his recently-deceased husband Richard Buckley in 2017.

The 2016 American presidential electoral victory of Donald J. Trump, prompted Ford and Buckley to return to America from London to fight the good fight. “Oddly, it made me want to come back even more,” Ford told WWD.

“We have a tremendous number of people in this country who feel disenfranchised and clearly we are not relating to or speaking to them.

I am at my core American, and it made me want to come back. It didn’t make me want to run away.”

On a note of irony, former-president Donald J. Trump is expected to announce his third run for the presidency tonight November 15, 2022 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. So suit up, Tom Ford. We have work to do. . . but I am really moved by this business marriage of great Americans and their families. Everything feels very right. ~ Anne