Richard Buckley

Tom Ford and his partner, Richard Buckley, have welcomed a son to their family, according to New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.

Horyn tweeted Friday morning, "Congratulations to Tom Ford and Richard Buckley on birth of their son, Alexander John Buckley Ford!"

Ford, 51, and Buckley, 64, have been together for 26 years. In May, Ford said he and Buckley wanted to have children, but realized that they'd have to do it in the near future.

"I think I'd better get busy soon, though, because I'd like to be able to pick them up," Ford said.

Update: A birth announcement, pictured below, that was tweeted by journalist Jim Shi claims that Alexander was born on Sept. 23.

>> Tom Ford's talk at this weekend's Vogue Festival touched on everything from the designer's sexuality (at one point he said he's "not gay") to why he wears his own cosmetics.

Alexandra Shulman led the conversation with the designer, asking why he posed for ads with so many naked women when he's been openly gay for years. Ford explained that he doesn't believe people "have to put boxes around everything," then asked, "Have you ever slept with a woman, Alex?"

The question prompted laughter from the audience, and a giggling Shulman answered no and pointed to Ford's partner of 25 years, Richard Buckley. Read on to see how he responded and some of the best quotes from the rest of his talk.

On his sexuality: "I hate to use the words gay and straight, and I think we're all on some sort of sliding scale. Of course, I'm at the Richard Buckley end of the scale, but I hate that gay/straight thing."

On why it's important to be in his own ads: "I'm the face of the brand. With Chanel, you feel that Karl Lagerfeld's personality has really melded with Coco's — but not everyone knows yet who I am, so that's why I'm in the pictures. I don't like having my picture taken but it helps people to respond . . . My real life's not like the fantasy Tom Ford world, with naked girls pouring perfume everywhere. It's more staying in and watching Friends on television."

On staging presentations rather than runway shows: "The reason I present in a small, controlled way is that so much of what makes my clothes special is the cut, the stitching, the lining — things that would be lost on the catwalk. On the catwalk you have to exaggerate, almost."

On testing his line of cosmetics: "I put every single thing on — I don't wear it down the street, but I want to see how it covers, how it works. When you put your name on something, you want people to know you believe in it."

>> Tom Ford and his boyfriend Richard Buckley have been together for 23 years, and at this point, Ford says: "No one comes on to me, ever. It is like I don’t exist sexually. No one, no one." When it's suggested that it might be because he's intimidating, Ford replies: "Maybe that is the reason, but no one, no one flirts, no one comes on to me. Usually when people are personal with me, then they want to give me their business card at the end of the conversation." He does wish that he got hit on more often, he though: "Of course! Why not? I am not saying I would act on it, but it would be nice." [The Talks]

>> Tom Ford and his partner, fashion journalist Richard Buckley, have been together 24 years. Out had each man document his own side of their romance — from how they first encountered one another — when Ford was 25 and an assistant, and Buckley was 38 and WWD fashion editor — at a fashion show, to how their relationship grew. From Buckley's tale: "For our first date, we went to this really sleazy cheapo restaurant on the Upper East Side called Albuquerque Eats — I don’t think it exists anymore. Tom sat there chit-chatting: 'And in 10 years I’m going to be showing my own collection in Paris, and I’m going to be a millionaire, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that.' And I kept thinking, This guy is really naive. But as we talked about other things, it was almost like seeing down a rabbit hole. I felt like I was looking at his eyes, and it was just spinning around and taking me down inside him. I could see he was a good man with a big heart." [Out]

>> Tom Ford helped Gucci Group acquire Balenciaga in 2001, particularly because of the interest in Nicolas Ghesquiere's design talent. It seems Ford's feelings haven't changed much — the two designers chat in the February 2010 issue of Interview and he admits to Ghesquiere: "I want to say that you are my favorite contemporary designer."  Ford conducted the entire phone interview nude: "I stay this way pretty much 24 hours a day. Richard [Buckley, Ford's boyfriend] is very funny. He is usually completely dressed. He does not like to be naked. So he is in the house; we are having dinner. I am sitting there naked; he is sitting there completely dressed."

Nicolas on his design future »

>> The relationship between Yves Saint Laurent, his business partner Pierre Berge, and his ready-to-wear successor Tom Ford was clearly a strained one.  In 2004 as Ford was leaving the label, Saint Laurent said of Ford: "I think he has a lot of talent for, what do you call it, marketing. But he never showed interest in the archives."  In between tales of his first sexual escapades and how he snuck his longtime partner Richard Buckley into A Single Man, Ford returns the favor in the December 2009-January 2010 issue of The Advocate:

“I don’t even remember much about my time at Yves Saint Laurent, though I do think some of my best collections were [there]—other than that black-and-white initial one. That one wasn’t very successful and wasn’t very good. But being at Yves Saint Laurent was such a negative experience for me even though the business boomed while I was there. Yves and his partner, Pierre Bergé, were so difficult and so evil and made my life such misery.

"Pierre and Yves were just evil" »

>> A Single Man, which Tom Ford directed, coproduced, cowrote and called "the most personal thing" he's ever done, premiered today at the Venice Film Festival.  The first trailer for the movie — which features a cameo by Ford's favorite ad model, Jon Kortajarena, as hustler Carlos — has also hit YouTube: see below; the colors and work of Mad Men's production designer Dan Bishop, who filled the same role for A Single Man, is instantly recognizable, and apparently the show's star Jon Hamm does an uncredited voiceover in the film.

The movie is already receiving good reviews — the Times UK called it "a thing of heart-stopping beauty . . . There will be critics who will be unable to get past the director’s background, but rest assured: Tom Ford is the real deal." Variety's verdict: "Luminous and treasurable, despite its imperfections. An impressive helming debut for fashion designer Tom Ford."

And Ford himself is finally talking about the film:  “People who don’t know me well will be very surprised by the film. It shows a different side of me."  Despite Ford's fascination with sex in the fashion arena, the film contains no sex scenes.  

He just finished editing A Single Man two weeks ago, and hopes this is the "the beginning of a parallel career alongside fashion," he tells WWD. "The process seems really natural to me, and I'd ideally like to make a film every three to four years."  But he's trying to keep his two careers separate: "I didn’t want to be perceived as some fashion designer who’s come to Venice and decided to make a film . . . I wanted to avoid anything to do with fashion, and I wanted the film to speak for itself."

Video: the trailer! »

Tom Ford with his longtime partner Richard Buckley, Mamma Mia! Premiere; London, June 30.

*image: source