Designer Tom Ford Announces Birth of Son

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Fashion designer Tom Ford and his longtime partner Richard Buckley have announced the arrival of their baby son, Alexander.

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The boy’s name is Alexander John Buckley Ford.

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New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn has tweeted her congrats to the fashion couple.

The official printed birth announcement was tweeted out two hours ago by journalist Jim Shi, and it reveals the boy was born on Sept. 23.

Ford, 51, and Buckley, 64, have been together for 26 years. The couple met when Ford, who took over at Gucci before launching his own company, saw Buckley at a fashion show in the 1980s. At the time, he was only 25 and Buckley, former editor in chief of Vogue Hommes International, was 38.

Ford, also a film director (A Single Man), recalled in WWD: "I went to a fashion show and this silver-haired guy was staring at me with these piercing water-blue eyes. It scared me because I absolutely saw and knew my entire future."

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Ford recently told WWD that he and Buckley had decided 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.

The baby is assumed to have been born via a surrogate,  which is how Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish had their boy, Zachary, who turns 2 on Dec. 26.