Beauty products group Estée Lauder has announced the acquisition of the Tom Ford brand for a total price of $2.3 billion, writes Leatherbiz.

Estée Lauder was already a long-standing partner of Tom Ford’s for fragrance and beauty products; it was Estée Lauder that launched the original Tom Ford fragrance in 2006 and the brand’s beauty range has expanded since then to include make-up and skin-care too.

However, although Estée Lauder will now be the sole owner of the Tom Ford brand and all its intellectual property, it will place the Tom Ford men’s and women’s fashion business in the hands of another partner, Ermenegildo Zegna.

This will include accessories and footwear.

Zegna has always focused on men’s clothing, but offers a limited range of men’s footwear too and some accessories. The Tom Ford business includes boots, sandals, lace-up shoes, loafers, monk-straps and other footwear for men, and pumps, boots, flats and sandals for women.

Tom Ford also offers a wide range of bags for women, many of them made from high-end leather in Italy.

To cope with the new lines of business, Ermenegildo Zegna has said it will acquire any existing operations of the Tom Ford fashion business that are “necessary to perform its obligations as licensee”.