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There are many remarkable things about Giorgio Armani. One is that at 90 years of age he is still working hard, overseeing all aspects of his large fashion empire. Another, perhaps even more astonishing, is that he still owns 100 per cent of the business he founded almost 50 years ago. In today’s fashion landscape, which is dominated by corporate conglomerates like LVMH, Kering and Richemont, who between them own many of the world’s luxury fashion brands, this independence speaks of commendable single-mindedness. And, finally, his menswear is never really out of fashion.
This is because the Italian designer is no longer simply in the fashion business. The name Armani has joined an exclusive list that includes Rolex and Rolls-Royce, where brands have transcended product categories to become symbolic of a certain attitude and status.
An Armani man is all about minimalism, elegance and connoisseurship
Armani favours dark or neutral-coloured tailoring
GERMAN LARKIN
Armani man is all about minimalism, elegance and connoisseurship. He is a global citizen whose preference for timeless style over passing fads marks him out as a knowledgeable adult. Just as when you think of Ferrari you think of red-blooded (and red-coloured), sexy Italian design, so Armani symbolises an alternative Italy — one of confident and relaxed style, linear and textured interiors, and dark or neutral-coloured tailoring worn for aperitivos. And the famous figures who grace the red carpet in his tuxedos.
“I do not deal in passing trends,” the designer says. We meet backstage before the big show he staged last week in New York. In uncharacteristic black tie — his trademark outfit is a navy blue long-sleeved knit, navy blue trousers, white trainers and (very Armani) round sunglasses — he looks the picture of elegance. “I seek the timeless, the elegant. Trends go out of style, that is their nature. But elegance does not date.”
This elegance was on show in New York this month, where Giorgio Armani came to town after an 11-year absence to open his new project at 760 Madison Avenue, like a returning emperor. This undertaking speaks volumes about what the boy who was born in Piacenza in 1934 has achieved. Housing not only his women’s and men’s collections, but also accessories, his interiors collection (Armani/Casa), a forthcoming Armani restaurant and ten Armani-designed apartments (all of which have sold), this “store” is a hybrid space spanning clothing, hospitality and residential.
The Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2025 collection
GERMAN LARKIN
“I always dreamt of creating an entire Armani lifestyle,” the designer says. “Interiors were an obvious area to explore as they allow you to dress the space. And food, too, is an essential part of life. It was a short step to hotels and residences.” There are Armani hotels in Milan and Dubai, and Armani restaurants and cafés round the word. Add to that Armani cakes and sweets (Armani/Dolci), flowers (Armani/Fiori) and a bookseller (Armani/Libri), as well as the fragrances, skincare and beauty ranges, and you start to see what an “Armani lifestyle” really means.
The new store at 760 Madison Avenue sits on the same street as the designer’s first in New York. “In the 1980s, when I opened my first Giorgio Armani boutique in Manhattan, I chose Madison Avenue because I felt it was an exclusive and refined area,” he says. “Ideal for the contemporary elegance I wanted to communicate. Today, more than 30 years later, I still believe this place reflects my philosophy and my aesthetic vision.” To mark the occasion, the designer staged a fashion show in the city, taking over the Park Avenue Armory and rigging the space to look like a version of Grand Central railway station, but with a huge nightclub. Using more than 90 models, the show presented the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2025 collections for women and men, named In Viaggio (meaning On a Journey).
The New York Exclusive Collection
The Armani style is confident and relaxed
GERMAN LARKIN
Attended by 650 guests — the great and the good of the city with a healthy gaggle of celebrities — the parade of typically Armani dark and neutral-coloured garments looked at home in Manhattan, and the designer explains that the metropolis holds a special place for him: “New York, for me, has always been linked to the many films that have deeply shaped my imagination.” The event also featured the launch of New York Exclusive, a capsule collection created for the new store that will be exclusively on sale there and at Bergdorf Goodman. The pieces consciously echo the designer’s 1980s tailoring style.
Back then, New York arguably acted as a bridge between Milan and the rest of the world for Armani. After the label came to the attention of the American public through dressing Richard Gere for the 1980 film American Gigolo, it was the men and women of Manhattan who took-up the Armani tailored look — the women as a way to achieve wardrobe equality in the workplace with their male colleagues, the men because they saw Armani as a way of softening their sartorial silhouette to make it more modern and less old-school corporate. And at the time the decade of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Grandmaster Flash, Bright Lights Big City, Run-DMC, Fatal Attraction, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Talking Heads, Keith Haring, Beastie Boys, Do the Right Thing, Jeff Koons, Raging Bull, Madonna, When Harry Met Sally and, of course, Wall Street, New York seemed to be the popular-cultural engine for the world. By being big in New York, Armani inevitably became big globally.
At that time, although he didn’t court it, the Armani look was fashionable. It defined a look — bourgeois, you might call it in Europe, but in a sensual, Italian way — that suited the aspirations of the times. Since then, with the advent of grunge and street style and maximalism and all the rest, Armani’s restrained smartness has been more or less of the moment depending on the times. But his popularity among consumers has not wavered. Because, as he says, “By not chasing fashion you are not its victim.” It speaks volumes that he became the go-to designer for Hollywood red-carpet events where (some) movie stars look to a safe pair of hands to make sure they look their best.
New York holds a special place for Armani
COURTESY OF GIORGIO ARMANI
Armani with his models
SGP
Today, however, the designer who eschews trends finds himself in the peculiar position of being, once again, in vogue. The Armani wide-trousered and fluid jacket look for men, which he has been essentially true to for five decades, again looks fresh and exciting. It marking a shift away from skinny strides and tight-fitting jackets and the pursuit of streetwear style by luxury brands. Suddenly, the neutral, natural coloured palette and the relaxed silhouettes that Richard Gere rocked in American Gigolo feel right again. What does the man who created this look think of this revival of interest?
“It’s interesting because you see things go around and come around. The whole discussion at the moment about gender in clothing is an example. From the very first I was producing clothes for women based on my menswear and using womenswear fabrics for my menswear. People talked of my style as being androgynous, whereas I simply looked at it as an aesthetic choice.”
And now that the style of his menswear is again seen as contemporary, what would he say to those who are just discovering it? “What can I say? Enjoy it. Enjoy the comfort. Clothes should always be comfortable as comfort brings confidence. Clothes should bring out the character of the wearer. They should not disguise or overwhelm. My menswear should make you look good, so you feel good. And as elegance does not date, you can wear it for years. Which is good for your bank balance and good for the planet too.” armani.com
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