After journalist Richard Buckley died this week, what could be his final piece is set to come out on Saturday — about his partner of 35 years, Tom Ford. And Buckley revealed that when he and Ford first met, he wasn’t so sure the designer was destined for fame and fortune.
Buckley penned a piece about Ford for Air Mail’s “Better Half” column, in which spouses write about their significant others. Buckley penned a behind-the-scenes account on what makes Ford tick, and how the top fashion designer rose to fame after they first met in the mid-’80s.
Recalled Buckley — whose work appeared in Vanity Fair and international editions of Vogue — “On our first date, in November of 1986, Tom told me, ‘In 10 years I will be a millionaire and showing my collections in Europe. As I already had six years of fashion-industry experience under my belt, I sat there thinking, ‘Poor thing. He will become so disillusioned when the system chews him up and spits him out.’”
Of course, “That time, like so many others over the years, he would prove me wrong. He achieved his goal in nine years.”
Buckley died at 72. The couple met at a fashion show in 1986 and married in 2014. Buckley’s piece in Graydon Carter’s Air Mail also details Ford’s time at Gucci and the launch of his own line.
Reps for Ford announced Buckley’s death in a statement that said: “Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles…. with Tom and their son Jack by his side. He died of natural causes after a long illness.”