By Lisa Armstrong and Emily Davies

THE fashion industry is genuinely shocked by Tom Ford’s decision to leave Gucci, the fashion company that he, together with his business partner Domenico De Sole, turned from a basket case in the early 1990s to the third-largest luxury-goods house in the world. Mr De Sole, 59, will leave with Mr Ford at the end of next April.

Although there had been rumours for months that the pair would go, possibly to rescue Versace, they had been effectively quashed recently, with stellar collections by Mr Ford for Gucci and YSL — the label that Gucci acquired in 1999 — and a much better performance at the tills.

The De Sole-Ford partnership is unique. They were recruited by Dawn Mello who was trying to rescue a Gucci that was in duty-free hell and close to bankruptcy. Mr Ford took the job in Milan primarily to escape with his fashion journalist boyfriend, Richard Buckley, from Aids-riven New York.

Mr De Sole sorted out the business fundamentals; Mr Ford took a degree of creative control that no other designer in the industry enjoys, and when Gucci floated in 1995 they became multi-millionaires. Along the way they had joined in the buying spree of the 1990s, turning Gucci into a fashion group whose labels include — as well as YSL — Balenciaga, Alex ander McQueen and Stella McCartney.

By 1997 the pair had gained enough power to allow Mr Ford to transfer Gucci’s headquarters from Milan to London — an unprecedented move. By the end of that year Gucci looked so attractive that Bernard Arnault, of the luxury goods company LVMH, put a hostile takeover bid in motion.

There was a court case in the Netherlands, culminating in a rescue bid by François Pinault, head of the Pinault-Printemps-Redoute conglomerate, who paid $8.5 billion for Gucci on the condition that Mr Ford and Mr De Sole stayed on.

All of which makes the split doubly ironic. But then this is a tale of good old-fashioned ego clashes. For while neither Mr De Sole nor Mr Ford is given to histrionic outbursts, both feel strongly that after more than ten years at Gucci, they have earned autonomy. M Pinault, a man not without ego himself, disagrees. He will have to find a replacement soon. Shares in his conglomerate fell by 6.5 per cent at the news.

“We greatly regret not having been able to reach an agreement with the two executives,” Serge Weinberg, chairman and chief executive of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, said. “They are great talents.”

It won’t be easy. Claire Kent, a luxury-goods analyst with Morgan Stanley, said: “The right chemistry between a designer and a brand is extremely difficult to find. So many great names have failed because they don’t have that magic ingredient.”

With film-star looks and a Hollywood producer’s eye for arresting images, Mr Ford is responsible for “blockbusters” that helped to make Gucci one of the hottest labels. His first hit, in 1995, was a collection of tight, bright hipster velvet trouser suits worn by gloriously slutty models who looked as though they had been up all night doing very bad things.

So, lesson one: sex sells.

There were not many women who did not want what those models were wearing. Then came the Gucci monogrammed clog, the python boot, the bamboo-handled bag and the Jackie O shoulder bag.

Mr Ford’s departure leaves Mr McQueen and Ms McCartney in a quandary. Mr McQueen, mooted as Mr Ford’s successor at YSL, has begun to break even, but Ms McCartney’s label has yet to do so.

And as for Mr De Sole and Mr Ford? Both are legally bound not to work elsewhere for a year and both insist that Mr Ford will work up until the last day of his contract.

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