Estee Lauder has signed fashion designer Thomas Ford, who turned Gucci Group NV into a global luxury brand, to develop beauty products that appeal to younger shoppers.

The accord includes a “Tom Ford for Estee Lauder” cosmetics line and a Ford brand of perfume, the cosmetics company said in a statement yesterday. Mr. Ford, 43, is also starting his own design company with former Gucci Chief Executive Domenico De Sole.

Mr. Ford, who stepped down as Gucci creative director last year, arrives at Estee Lauder as competitors L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble are expanding in the premium fragrance business. Sales of Estee Lauder’s fragrances are slowing and the company’s namesake brand needs to become more contemporary, said fashion analysts.

“Tom Ford’s presence would be radicalizing Estee Lauder in a very good way,” said Annette McEvoy, who runs A. McEvoy & Associates, a New York based retail and consumer-marketing consulting firm. “He’ll be bringing some edge to their look. That’s what they need.”

Estee Lauder, maker of Clinique and Bobbi Brown cosmetics, said it’s the first time the brand has brought in an outside designer and that some Ford products will begin selling this holiday season.

“I really missed designing,” Mr. Ford said in an interview today. “I missed having a voice in the popular world. You can’t do this sort of thing on your own.”

Mr. Ford said he will collaborate with Aerin Lauder, the company’s senior vice president, to create the holiday collection and that other products will be done under a licensing accord with Estee Lauder. “I’ll have complete control over the products,” he said.

Neither he nor Estee Lauder would disclose the financial terms. The agreement will last more than five years.

William Lauder, who became Estee Lauder’s chief executive officer in July 2004, is trying to boost sales at the upscale department stores that sell its products. Since taking over the company founded by and named for his late grandmother, he has also has added lower-price brands such as Flirt and American Beauty at Kohl’s stores to reach more customers.

Estee Lauder controls half the market for so-called prestige cosmetics in America. Sales at the company, founded in 1946 by Joseph and Estee Lauder, rose 14% to $5.8 billion in the year ended in June.

While its skin care and makeup sales have been growing, fragrance sales have declined. Estee Lauder had fragrance sales of $770.3 million for the six months ended December 31, down from $777.5 million in the year-earlier period.

North American department stores account for about 40% of Estee Lauder’s sales, according to estimates by Merrill Lynch analyst Christopher Ferrara.

“Tom Ford has a great record in making a success out of a luxury accessories company,” said Scilla Huang Sun, who manages a 60 million euro luxury fund for Clariden Bank in Zurich. “Whether he can do the same thing with cosmetics still needs to be seen. It’s a different business.”

Mr. Ford, the son of real estate brokers, was born in Austin, Texas, where he grew up until the family moved to Santa Fe, N.M. He moved to New York to attend New York University and Parsons School of Design. He started his career in fashion as a designer for Cathy Hardwick and also worked at Perry Ellis.

Messrs. Ford and De Sole helped transform Gucci, a unit of the French retailer Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA, from an unprofitable Florentine leather-goods maker into a global label whose clothing is worn by celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow.

Dubbed the “Tom Cruise of the Fashion Industry” by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Mr. Ford started at Gucci in 1990 as a women’s ready-to-wear designer when Maurizio Gucci, the last remaining family member to run the company, was still in charge. Mr. Ford became creative director in 1994.

Messrs. Ford and De Sole revived Gucci, previously known for loafers with horsebit clasps and suede hobo bags, by going after a younger, more daring image.

The brand became known for its stiletto heels and bamboo-handled backpacks after singer Madonna appeared at the 1995 VH1 music video awards wearing a Gucci turquoise-silk blouse and velvet hip-hugging pants.

By contrast, Maurizio Gucci, the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci and the company’s previous manager, had aimed to compete with more classic luxury brands such as Hermes International SCA.

“Maurizio always wanted everything to be round and brown and Tom wanted to make it square and black,” said Gucci’s former creative director Dawn Mello, who hired Mr. Ford to design the company’s ready-to-wear collections in 1990.

Mr. Ford was known for his body-hugging silk and leather clothes, for seeking control of a brand’s image from accessories to advertising, and for provocative campaigns. Ads in 2002 featured a model with her pants open and her pubic hair shaved into a “G” logo.

Gucci had sales of about $500 million in 1995, when it first sold shares to the public. Revenue was 2.4 billion euros in 2004, when Messrs. Ford and De Sole left.

“Tom and I are launching the Tom Ford brand,” Mr. De Sole said in an interview. “This is the first step in a long journey. This brand is going to evolve.”

De Sole said the brand will be extended to other products and not necessarily under licensing agreements.

“I have no plans at the moment to do a ready-to-wear” clothing line, Mr. Ford said. “I want to build this business organically by doing the things I like to do.”