Yahoo searches for ‘Tom Ford’ spike -- is Jay Z the reason?

Today comes word from the folks over at Yahoo that searches for the name “Tom Ford” have spiked 155% in the last month and that the search engine’s queries for the fashion designer’s name are up ninefold in 2013 compared with the same time last year.

In this morning’s “what’s spiking” email, Yahoo Web trends expert Carolyn Clark suggests the spike could have something to do with Jay Z’s song “Tom Ford” (sample lyric: “I don’t pop molly, I rock Tom Ford”) off the album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” which was released in early July.

That could certainly be what’s driving Ford searches, but the luxury designer’s name has been circulating through the pop culture ether like canned air on a cross-country flight lately — in ways unrelated to Jay Z’s song.

TF’s name seemed to start its current pop-culture ascendance during the Hollywood awards season at the beginning of the year. Among those hitting the red carpet in full Ford regalia were Julianne Moore (at the Golden Globes) and Hugh Jackman (for the Academy Awards). It certainly couldn’t have dampened the buzz when the ever-dapper Jon Hamm turned out to the “Mad Men” Season 6 premiere in a Tom Ford suit.

The focus on Ford got a whole lot sharper with the March debut of Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience.” In “Suit & Tie,” the first single from that album, Timberlake offers up his own Tom Ford shout-out, and in the accompanying video (for which Ford provided made-to-measure suits, shirts, ties, shoes and accessories) there’s even a flash of the label on the back of a necktie.

Then, in June, none other than Superman himself — Henry Cavill — was hitting the red carpet in Tom Ford for the New York and London premieres of “Man of Steel.”

Oh, and did we mention there were a couple of fashion weeks in there too? Ford sent his fall 2013 women’s ready-to-wear collection down the London runway in February, and presented his menswear collection in the same city in June.

According to Clark, 67% of the Yahoo searches over the last month came from men and 33% from women, and the top-searching cities for the designer’s name included New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles.

ALSO:

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‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ stays on top of Billboard 200

Justin Timberlake, in Tom Ford, has ‘20/20’ style vision

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