EVER SINCE 2004, when Tom Ford walked away from the Gucci Group, he has done things in his singular way. He’s made two movies (both of which have been nominated for all sorts of honors, Oscars included) and developed his own line in reverse order from everyone else (eyewear, followed by fragrance, followed by cosmetics, followed by clothes). He and his husband, former Vogue Hommes International editor Richard Buckley, became parents to a son, and Ford’s moved his design studio from London to Los Angeles, though it’s still kind of in London. There’s also an office in Milan, and one in Tokyo, because “that’s what fashion people do. It’s normal.” ¶ So much about the way fashion works today—the designer star system, the luxury conglomerates, the cultish immersion in a house’s overall ethos—can be traced back to 1995, when Ford showed his landmark collection for Gucci. Even then, he was more than just the designer; he played a key role in assembling the Gucci Group (which was folded into PPR, which became Kering), and Kering acquired and still controls a group of top-end brands that includes Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen. (His straddling of the business-creative divide was unprecedented and not always welcome. When Ford was appointed creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, Mr. Saint Laurent was not impressed. “The poor guy,” he said snobbishly, “he does what he can.”)