Circa 2024, designers come and go from top brands almost like clockwork, but in 2004 Tom Ford did what was then quite a rare thing when he walked away from his creative director gig at Gucci. The move stunned the industry, writes Luke Leitch; Ford, after all, was presiding over “a several-year arcadia that seemed as close to perfection as modern fashion has ever reached.” If 2004 was a year for goodbyes—and Ford’s Gucci swansong really showed us what we’d be missing, Leitch remembers—it was also a year for beginnings. It gave us the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and the high-low hook-up that was Karl Lagerfeld and H&M’s designer collaboration. Revisit all of these moments in our Fashion in the 21st Century Time Machine. |
