Giorgio Armani’s farewell present at Milan Vogue Week
This was imagined to be a interval of celebration for Giorgio Armani and his model, which turned 50 this 12 months. Il signore Armani, as his mates and colleagues usually referred to him, achieved what as soon as appeared inconceivable: constructing a worldwide style enterprise on his personal phrases. He was his firm’s sole shareholder and spokesperson; he signed all the pieces off, from the merchandising of store home windows to the quantity of blush on his fashions’ cheeks. And he resisted style’s fleeting pattern cycles in favour of his personal purist design imaginative and prescient: impartial color palettes, relaxed tailoring and pared-back magnificence.
To mark the milestone, the model started the season with the launch of Armani/Archivio throughout the Venice Movie Competition in August. A visible archive of a few of the model’s most significant collections and promoting campaigns, it incorporates all the pieces from a sketch of a lady’s go well with from spring/summer season 1984 to a 1998 marketing campaign shot by Paolo Roversi and that includes Canadian actor and mannequin Shalom Harlow. An anniversary runway present and the opening of an exhibition on the Pinacoteca di Brera – a stone’s throw from Armani’s workplaces and house – had been scheduled to happen shortly afterwards, on 28 September, coinciding with the spring/summer season 2026 version of Milan Vogue Week. Three weeks earlier than the anticipated present and exhibition opening, nevertheless, Armani’s household and colleagues introduced his passing.
Even when the temper in Milan was extra sombre than celebratory, the present went on – simply because the 91-year-old designer, identified for his unparalleled work ethic, would have needed. You possibly can really feel it within the air the second you approached Through Brera and noticed the procession of style professionals heading in direction of the Pinacoteca, simply because the solar was starting to set as if to salute the late designer. One journalist cycled by way of Brera’s cobbled streets in a velvet skirt and a black tuxedo jacket. The corporate’s long-serving store managers, who flew in from so far as Japan and the US, wore dapper velvet tuxes. Muses and mates got here dressed within the model’s signature night uniform of palazzo trousers, embellished jackets and pillbox hats. There was an unstated settlement of types amongst attendees to not solely respect the occasion’s black-tie costume code but in addition to interpret it in the best way that Armani would have needed: with out pomp or pointless extra.
This was one of many uncommon events when the standard pandemonium that comes with large-scale style exhibits was changed with an orderly, nearly reverent environment. For as soon as, style editors revered the queue, marching quietly in direction of the present’s entrance and leaving their telephones tucked away to be absolutely current. A way of awe settled within the second you entered the gallery: glowing lanterns surrounded Antonio Canova’s imposing statue of Napoleon Bonaparte within the guise of Mars the Peacemaker. Friends embraced, complimented one another’s sharp tailoring (“We scrub up nicely,” was overheard greater than as soon as) and spoke of the privilege of witnessing historical past. “It’s emotional – he actually was one among a form and he created trendy style tradition,” one style editor instructed Monocle. “It was actually simply him and Ralph Lauren.” Additional down, fellow designers Paul Smith and Dries van Noten spoke about how a lot they admired his work and readability of imaginative and prescient.
After an hour of quiet socialising, company took their seats. From pristine white chairs positioned across the cobbled courtyard, they took in Pantelleria/Milan, the final assortment designed by Armani himself. He had reportedly been engaged on the anniversary assortment by way of the summer season, attending fittings and approving appears to be like earlier than happening his final summer season trip. Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi took to the stage first, adopted by a few of Armani’s favorite fashions, from Gina di Bernardo, who starred in a few of his earliest advert campaigns, to Agnese Zogla, who closed the present. They principally walked in pairs – one other Armani signature – gliding by way of the Pinacoteca to Einaudi’s gentle, emotional melody.
True to his impartial spirit, the Italian designer was identified for all the time asking his fashions to smile and stroll at a slower tempo in order that his viewers had time to understand the standard of the clothes. Even when style favoured stern faces, loud techno and fast walks, Armani clung to his imaginative and prescient of relaxed luxurious. “You’re younger, lovely individuals – you must look completely satisfied,” he instructed fashions throughout a fitting, captured in Julian Ozanne’s 2000 documentary Giorgio Armani: A Man for All Seasons.
Armani knew find out how to paint an image of pleasure and magnificence. Watching his fashions strolling down the runway with that delicate smile and a sparkle of their eyes, you didn’t simply wish to purchase his garments. You felt an urge to turn into a part of his complete world too. He was among the many first style designers to grasp the significance of constructing an identification that prolonged past garments, increasing his enterprise into furnishings in 2000 with the launch of Armani Casa and coming into the hospitality sector a decade later with Armani-branded accommodations, cafés and eating places.
“He created environments defined by a type of austere heat that feels each minimal and richly textured,” says Enric Pastor, the editor in chief of interiors, artwork and structure publication Manera, who up to now interviewed the designer to debate the Armani Casa collections. “At first, the environment could be nearly theatrical, with the [Armani team] orchestrating each element. However this might quickly be offset by the designer himself, his heat and his readability of thought.”
This identical heat was palpable on the runway, which paid homage to 2 locations near Armani’s coronary heart: Milan, “the town of modernity and work”, and the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria, the place he spent a lot of his summers. He was drawn to the island’s wild nature, its proximity to Europe and Africa, and the limitless blue of the Mediterranean Sea. His home there, as Pastor places it, “stays an ideal instance of what Armani stood for: symmetry, restraint and refinement”.
You possibly can instantly think about the opening appears to be like – linen fits, palazzo pants, good vests within the model’s signature “greige” hue – gliding down the colourful streets of Brera. The extra informal khaki units that adopted, accessorised with bucket hats and leather-based sun shades circumstances strung across the fashions’ necks, transported you straight to Pantelleria’s rocky landscapes.
Even when the present shifted to night put on, with beaded purses for ladies, heavier jacquard fits for males and deeper, nocturnal-blue color palettes, the identical sense of lightness and ease prevailed. The phrase “easy” may be overused in style discourse, particularly in the intervening time. Within the context of Armani and his work, nevertheless, it carries actual weight. “Armani’s contact lies on this paradox,” learn his group’s present notes. “A strong stylistic assertion, expressed by way of weightless garments.”
The ultimate look, a clean-lined, beaded costume bearing the portrait of a younger Armani (seen solely if you appeared intently) completely encapsulated that paradox. Mannequin Agnese Zogla obtained a standing ovation when she walked down the makeshift runway within the robe – as did Armani’s niece, Silvana, and his longstanding accomplice, Leo dell’Orco, who took a bow in matching black velvet, the look of their eyes betraying each melancholy and delight.
The company had been then invited upstairs to view Milano, Per Amore, an exhibition of about 120 Armani appears to be like displayed alongside masterpieces of Italian artwork from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. A sequence of pinstripe fits from the Nineties surrounded one other colossal statue of Napoleon by Canova, whereas a gaggle of signature greige fits for women and men sat throughout a portray of an “invented Orient” by Giovanni Bellini. The connection between the historic artworks and Armani’s up to date style collections won’t have been instantly apparent however, because the Pinacoteca’s director, Angelo Crespi, famous, Armani’s dedication to purity of kind places him amongst Italy’s most essential creative ambassadors. It’s additionally why the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, declared a day of mourning for the designer’s funeral.
“Giorgio Armani stands as one of many highest expressions of Italian creativity, manifested by way of the essentialness and rigour of kind,” added Crespi, who stated that he thought it was each “proper and needed” to pay homage to the designer in his personal neighbourhood. “He’s probably the most emblematic expression of Brera’s tradition, a spot the place for five centuries artwork, analysis and innovation have flourished.”
As fashions, editors and retailers waltzed by way of the gallery, glasses of champagne in hand, what had begun as a sombre farewell shortly changed into a joyous celebration of a life nicely lived, a second to reflect and be impressed. “It’s particularly essential for us to be right here to salute Mr Armani as a result of he was such a supporter of print,” stated Konstantin Spachis, the style director of Munich’s Madame journal. “He needed to see his merchandise on our pages.”
Notably, succession was not mentioned – as all the time, Armani commanded quiet respect. His design group has been meticulously skilled to proceed his legacy for seasons to come back however, within the close to future, the seek for a brand new artistic lead will turn into inevitable. “I believe that manufacturers want to remain present, so a refresh [under a new designer] would benefit the corporate,” says Luca Solca, a managing director at non-public wealth-management firm Bernstein, including {that a} new chief may additionally modernise the corporate’s sub-brands and its method to wholesale.
Armani left little to likelihood in enterprise issues. His will instructs his heirs to start promoting the €2bn firm inside 18 months of his passing, giving precedence to heavy-weights akin to LVMH, L’Oréal or EssilorLuxottica. “This confirms – if it wasn’t clear already – that Armani had no real interest in constructing a legendary Italian luxurious conglomerate,” says Solca. “He simply needed to remain impartial for so long as he was operating the present.”
And whereas bidding wars would possibly already be brewing, that Sunday night in Milan wasn’t in regards to the Armani enterprise or its future. It was about Giorgio Armani, the person – and the ability of consistency, refinement and obsession with element. By insisting on these values, he created a common design language, a brand new manner of getting dressed. Simply as Coco Chanel freed ladies from corsets, Armani will lengthy be remembered because the “King of the Blazer”, the person who loosened up tailoring for the trendy world.
By about midnight, the candles within the courtyard of the Pinacoteca had dimmed and the Steinway piano was packed away. By January, the gathering will return to the model’s archive. However the Italian designer’s legend will stay etched in our reminiscences. At any time when somebody orders his favorite meatballs on the Armani restaurant on Through Manzoni, checks into the Armani Resort subsequent door or dons a wonderfully tailor-made greige jacket with no shoulder pads, the Armani title will come to life.
