Ford quits Gucci
Tom Ford, the designer credited with reviving the fortunes of the Gucci group and giving the likes of Stella McCartney an international platform, is to quit.
He will leave the Italian-based fashion house next spring alongside its chief executive Domenico de Sole.
The departure of the two men credited with building the firm into a global force in fashion comes after recent poor sales, but with the luxury industry apparently poised for an up-turn.
Ford rejuvenated the Italian fashion house when he was appointed, re-modelling their designs and creating a huge commercial empire.
A Gucci spokesman said: "Domenico and Tom are stepping down. They are not renewing their contracts and they will be leaving the group."
Their joint departure, agreed after discussions involving the group's controlling shareholder, French luxury group Pinault Printemps Redoute, will take effect on 30 April, he said.
"They are a team and they will be leaving as a team to pursue other ambitions.
"There were long discussions with PPR about the future. They couldn't make common ground about the direction the group should take." Gucci said no-one had yet been appointed to succeed them.
GucciNV, the group's Dutch holding company, had set up a board committee under PPR chief executive Serege Weinberg, fellow director Francois Henri Pinault and group chairman Adrian Bellamy to conduct the search for successors, he said.
Gucci's reviving fortunes after a two year lull in the luxury market has been spearheaded by their successful recruitment of British designers Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.
Gucci started out as a luggage maker but in the Fifties the label became synonymous with the glamour of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.
The Seventies was an even more successful decade, but over the next 10 years the empire suffered from family feuds and a massive growth in counterfeiting.
Texan-born Ford taken on in 1994 to halt the decline, bringing clean lines and understated sexiness to his womenswear.
Critics said his clothes became a hit in the crucial American market because women loved the look and the US media loved the fact Ford was American.
As he built up a stable of designers he took on exciting new names such as McCartney and gave them the freedom to design as they chose.
