From reinventing Gucci and adjacently inventing the concept of the all-seeing Creative Director, to spearheading sweat-inducing displays of sex on the runway, to creating a billion-dollar brand, Tom Ford has conquered the fashion industry — and now he’s walking away from it. After Estée Lauder acquired Tom Ford towards the end of 2022, rumors swirled around whether or not Ford himself would continue his tenure at his eponymous label founded in 2010. Thirteen years ago as he released his first collection for his label, Ford told Sara Mower of Vogue, “The day I don’t love to do it, I’ll sell it. Because we’re all only here for a little while, and nothing we do or make has any permanence at all. I care now because I’m doing it. I want to be proud of what I do. Which may be ten or 20 years; who knows?”

So now the day has come; Mr. Ford, beacon of pleasure, has fallen out of love and has chosen to move on. With his announcement, the multi-hyphenate creative has unveiled his final collection via a series of videos shot by Steven Klein. The collection is a highlight reel of some of Ford’s most beloved designs; harkening back to his time at Gucci with a midnight blue rendition of the famed 1996 velvet suit, his 2012 white cape gown made famous by Goop-lord Gwenyth Paltrow, and a more recent reference to his hit hot-pink breastplate design from 2020.

Ford has called for a host of his muses in the video for the archive-oriented collection, including Amber Valletta, Joan Smalls, Karlie Kloss, Karen Elson, Caroline Trentini, and more. The models throughout all three videos are contained within a glass box, at times strutting around in gowns, while elsewhere Valletta sobs, Elson lip-syncs for her life to an operatic tune, and Smalls throws a punch at the camera. It’s a hysterical meltdown of sorts, a dramatic visual metaphor of Ford’s controversial yet consistently legendary creative choices unfolding inside of a glass case while Ford himself is shown looking in from the outside. 

As his last collection, Ford has used his label as a means to remind you that he is, in fact, a bona fide design icon, canonized into the hall of fame of fashion’s biggest names. His archival re-edition is a showcase of how Ford has been a steadfast creative force, unapologetic and relentless in his pursuit of perfection, sex, and luxury.

Many questions remain: who will take over the label now? Will Ford return to filmmaking as he did in the interim between his time at Gucci and starting his own label? The New York Times predicts that the successor to Ford will most likely be Peter Hawkings, the label’s head menswear designer, while the future for Ford himself remains unknown. Perhaps you could call it wishful thinking, but something tells me that this is far from the last creative expression from the man, the myth, the legend.