We forgot about Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent

When Tom Ford was appointed as the creative director of Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, expectations were sky-high. Following his successes with Gucci, Ford was seen as a revolutionary capable of transforming a declining brand into a global icon. However, his tenure at the historic French maison became one of the most controversial chapters of his career, marked by creative tensions, philosophical differences, and the challenge of balancing innovation with respect for legacy. Yves Saint Laurent, the maison's founder and a legendary figure in the fashion industry, had created an aesthetic universe rooted in elegance and poetry. Ford’s arrival, with his direct and aggressive approach, represented a stark contrast. Saint Laurent himself did not hide his disappointment, describing Ford's work as a damage to his legacy in an interview with WWD: «Finally, Ford is leaving. I have suffered for what he did with my name. Thankfully, the damage is not irreversible.» What were the premises of his arrival? At the helm of Gucci, Ford had transformed the brand into a luxury powerhouse, merging seduction and modernity. By 2004, Gucci achieved a revenue of 3.2 billion euros, cementing its status as an industry leader. Ford and Domenico De Sole, then CEO of the Gucci Group, aimed to replicate the same economic and creative model at the French maison. In 1999, the Gucci Group acquired Yves Saint Laurent for 1 billion dollars, taking control of the prêt-à-porter collections, while the founder and Pierre Bergé retained management of haute couture and perfume lines.

The biggest challenge for Ford was reinterpreting Saint Laurent’s aesthetic without betraying its essence. His first collection, presented in 2000 at the Rodin Museum in Paris, was highly anticipated: the debut of the year. Saint Laurent, having departed for Marrakech, was absent, while Bergé refrained from making statements. Critic Cathy Horyn wrote in the New York Times: «The collection was good, but not exceptional; what matters most is that Ford managed to find a way, through Saint Laurent’s dense vocabulary, to express his voice.» On the runway, Ford avoided overt references like the iconic bow blouses, instead reinterpreting classic elements with a modern twist. The jackets featured wide sleeves and ruched bands, evoking the 1980s Saint Laurent with a more contemporary energy. Black and white dominated, with few pops of color, creating a neutral canvas for new proportions. Feedback was mixed: «It’s not Yves’ poetry,» observed Sonia Rykiel, «It’s much stronger and more direct.»

An emblematic and controversial moment of Ford’s era at Yves Saint Laurent was the advertising campaign for the men’s fragrance *M7*, launched in 2002. Bold and daring, it featured model Samuel de Cubber completely nude, echoing the 1971 image of Yves Saint Laurent himself in the nude. This gesture symbolized Ford’s intent to modernize the brand’s language with a provocative aesthetic, yet one rooted in historical archives. Despite criticisms, Ford left a mark with iconic products such as the Mombasa bag, which combined refinement and sensuality to become a symbol of desirability. This demonstrated Ford’s ability to create iconic accessories in a maison renowned for its clothing.

From an economic perspective, however, the turnaround of Saint Laurent proved more challenging than expected. Unlike Gucci, which Ford had revitalized with a bold approach, Saint Laurent required a different sensitivity, tied to respecting a deeply rooted tradition. The economic results struggled to take off: in 2002, Saint Laurent reported a revenue of 671 million. In a Parisian landscape dominated by John Galliano, Hedi Slimane, and Alexander McQueen, Ford’s collections seemed to lack the spark needed to stand out. As Kal Ruttenstein of Bloomingdale’s remarked: «This is Yves’ life, reimagined for the new millennium.» However, for others, the lack of poetry made the collections too ‘polished’, distant from Saint Laurent’s DNA. Tom Ford’s tenure at Yves Saint Laurent, which ended in 2004, remains a paradox: on one hand, the ambition to innovate the brand; on the other, the inability to reconcile his vision with the maison’s soul. Ford created iconic products but did not replicate the economic and creative success of Gucci. Yves Saint Laurent, with its delicate and poetic universe, did not align with Ford’s pragmatism. This chapter reminds us that innovating a legacy is a complex art: the Texan designer remains undeniably a revolutionary creative, but Saint Laurent will always be the fashion world’s enfant prodige.