Richard Buckley, Tom Ford’s husband and fashion editor, passed away at the age of 72.

According to a statement released by officials of Ford’s namesake fashion business, fashion editor Richard Buckley, the spouse of designer Tom Ford, died at the age of 72.

“It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley,” Ford’s reps stated in a statement to CNN Style.

“Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles last night with Tom and their son Jack by his side. He died of natural causes after a prolonged illness.”

Buckley was a fashion media titan who served as editor-in-chief of Vogue Hommes International for six years until quitting in 2005. He held many prestigious roles in the business throughout his 25-year career, including fashion editor at Women’s Wear Daily, social editor at Vanity Fair, and European editor of the now-defunct Mirabella magazine. He also wrote for publications such as Italian Vogue and New York Magazine.

Buckley had a “diligent, soft-spoken demeanour that charmed him to virtually everyone he encountered,” according to an obituary in his previous magazine, Women’s Wear Daily. He also had a great eye for identifying menswear trends many seasons before they reached the catwalk, according to the publication.

Ford told Jess Cagle in 2016 that it was “love at first sight” when he met Buckley in an elevator at a fashion show in 1986. Buckley was a fashion editor for Women’s Wear Daily at the time, according to the magazine. Working under sportswear designer Cathy Hardwick, Ford had yet to become a household brand.

According to Ford, who told Cagle: “By the time that elevator landed on the ground floor I thought, ‘You’re the one.’ That’s it. Click. Sold.”

Buckley and Ford rose to prominence in the 1990s as a fashion power couple when Ford was recruited as a womenswear designer at Gucci in 1990 and elevated to creative director in 1994. Throughout their partnership, the couple lived and worked in fashion capitals throughout the globe, including Milan and Paris. They married in 2014 after having their son in September 2012.

Ford presently serves as the head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

ABOUT RICHARD BUCKLEY

Richard Buckley was an American fashion journalist and editor who was born in 1948. Buckley worked for Vogue Italia and New York magazine and edited for Women’s Wear Daily, Vanity Fair, and Vogue Hommes, where he was editor-in-chief from 1999 to 2005.

Buckley was born in Binghamton, New York, and went to the University of Maryland’s Munich campus for his education. He was the spouse of designer Tom Ford, with whom he had a son born via gestational surrogacy in 2012.

Buckley died on September 19, 2021, at the age of 72, at his home in Los Angeles, following a prolonged illness.