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Tom Ford is stepping down after three years as the chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
He will finish on 31 May and stay on in an advisory role through the summer while the CFDA votes for a new chairperson. Ford will remain on the board of the organisation.
“When I began my role as chairman in June of 2019, my goal was to help the American fashion industry become more globally recognised for its talent and importance. I could not have imagined the extraordinary circumstances that both the industry and the world would have to navigate — that a pandemic would shut the world down and change the course of our lives and of our businesses forever,” wrote Ford in a statement distributed by the CFDA.
Ford assumed the position of CFDA chairman in 2019, following the departure of Diane von Furstenberg. Ford’s tenure, for the most part, overlapped with the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. During his tenure, he launched the CFDA’s A Common Thread initiative with Vogue, donating over $5 million to the fashion industry in the United States. He also helped bring New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala back in full force in 2021 and 2022, boosting a spirit of camaraderie among the American fashion community.
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“The pandemic challenged all of us to think about our businesses in new ways — from the design process and production, to how we reach and speak to our customers,” he continued in his statement. “We were forced to come up with creative new ways to run our companies. Some may think that fashion is just about making beautiful clothes and accessories or having runway shows, dressing celebrities and throwing parties without considering the incredible amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, or that the fashion industry is a $3 trillion industry that employs millions of individuals. As chairman of the CFDA, I have had the privilege to experience first-hand the remarkable determination and optimism that drives our industry. I am honoured to have been able to support the truly incredible talent in the American fashion industry for these past three years, and I look forward to continuing in my role on the CFDA board.”
At the 2021 CFDA Awards, held at the Four Seasons’s Pool Room and The Grill, Ford hosted his first in-person CFDA ceremony. “I’m excited to show how American fashion has impacted the rest of the world, whether the rest of the world is ready to acknowledge that or not,” he said. “That is my goal, to help the rest of the world understand how much they have taken and how much America has given to fashion globally.” Few have given as much as Ford, whose career spans the United States, Italy, England, and beyond.
This article first appeared on Vogue.com.
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