Giorgio Armani, the famous Italian fashion designer, has died, aged 91.
The news of his death has been confirmed by the brand. "With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani," the fashion house said in a statement.
"Indefatigable to the end, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections and the many ongoing and future projects."
Armani missed the finale of his menswear show in Milan in June, as well as his haute couture presentation weeks later in Paris. The absences were attributed at the time to “doctor’s orders”. It was the first time in his long career that he had not attended one of his own shows.
He was regarded as a ground-breaking figure in the fashion industry, with an uncanny business sense and an ability to spot opportunities long before others. Among other things, Armani is credited with inventing red carpet dressing.
Born on July 11, 1934, in Piacenza, about 70km south-east of Milan, Armani previously described his childhood as "tough" in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. Adding: "The cinema in Milan was a refuge – a palace of dreams – and the movie stars seemed so glamorous. I fell in love with the idealised beauty of Hollywood stars.”
After initially studying medicine, Armani dropped out of university to join the army. While on leave, he landed a job as window dresser at the Milan department store La Rinascente. “I started assisting the photographer, designing the windows and things,” he told Time magazine.
In 1957, he moved to the menswear department and showed such flair that he was soon snapped up by the label Nino Cerruti to design its menswear. In July 1975, Armani launched his own label, first with a men’s collection, following with womenswear the next spring.
Determined to redefine women’s clothes, Armani rebelled against a restrictive fit and offered loose yet elegant clothes in a muted, sophisticated palette. Speaking to Women's Wear Daily many years later, Armani explained: “My vision was clear: I believed in getting rid of the artifice of clothing. I believed in neutral colours.”
By the mid-1980s, Armani's designs were synonymous with stylish success, as he had transformed the wardrobe of professional women, throwing aside brash floral skirts for chic trouser suits and fitted yet comfortable jackets.
Thanks to his ability to see things in a new light, he has often been credited with single-handedly inventing red carpet dressing, when he dressed Diane Keaton to accept her Best Actress Oscar in 1978. Her modest long skirt and beige jacket may seem tame by modern standards, but being dressed by a top-name designer was unheard of then, and it upended the practice of stars wearing their own clothes to events.
In 1989, dismayed at Jodie Foster's dowdy look at the Oscars, Armani reached out, offering to provide her with clothes. She would later wear Armani to every Academy Awards ceremony, bar one.
Elsewhere, Julia Roberts famously accepted her Best Supporting Actress award at the 1990 Golden Globes wearing a masculine Armani suit, triggering a deep friendship between the actress and designer, which lasted for the rest of his life. Roberts attended the 2008 Met Gala on Armani's arm and, when the designer was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2019 Fashion Awards, Roberts accompanied him, dressed in a custom-made embellished black jumpsuit.
With a cut that is always elegant and never vulgar, Armani's discreetly luxurious designs have been worn to countless red carpets over the years and are a go-to for Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Nicole Kidman. Actors Sean Penn and Vincent Cassel are just some of his male fans. As British fashion journalist Anna Wintour once quipped: “Armani gave movie stars a modern way to look.”
Perhaps spurred by his childhood love of cinema, Armani upended convention when he dressed actor Richard Gere for a starring role in a 1980s film. Until then, clothes were entirely anonymous, but by dressing the lead actor (and receiving full credit for it), Armani not only introduced his work to an American audience, he triggered a rush among designers to do the same.
He would go on to dress Don Johnson for Miami Vice in the mid-1980s, Kevin Costner for The Untouchables (1987), Christian Bale in The Dark Knight (2008), Jodie Foster in Elysium (2013) and Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds (2009).
By the 1990s, Armani was heading an empire spanning 200 global stores among including Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange, Armani Jeans and Armani Collezioni, as well as underwear, swimwear, eyewear and perfumes. Sales today top $2.5 billion a year. In 2010, he opened his first hotel, in Burj Khalifa, Dubai.
His fashion shows became highly regarded for his choice to send models down the runway in pairs, often wearing matching looks. His love of cool, demure tones, resulted in having a colour named in his honour; “greige” is a mix of grey and beige.
The designer also had his own show space in Milan. Keen to show support for up-and-coming designers, he opened the use of it year-round including during Milan Fashion Week.
Speaking to Time, Armani explained: “We need concrete actions to support Italian fashion, initiatives that give more strength and a feeling of novelty to Milan’s Fashion Week.
“It is for this reason that I decided to make my theatre on Via Bergognone available for the fashion shows of some of the most promising designers, who can count on my building’s technical services.”
Another strong draw of his shows was the often-eclectic soundtracks that echoed his own tastes from classical and Italian folk, through 1920s jazz and North African music, to contemporary R&B. In 1996, Eric Clapton wrote the music for one of Armani’s runway shows and in 2015, Emporio Armani launched its own music app.
In 2009, at the age of 75, Armani created the stage looks for Lady Gaga’s Monsters Ball Tour and again for her Born This Way tour in 2012.
Grasping the importance of the internet, his became the first major label to stream shows online, with the Spring Armani Prive haute couture show 2007 broadcast on MSN and the Cingular mobile phone network.
Horrified at the fashion industry’s obsession with ever-skinnier models, Armani started the size debate when he banned models with a body mass index below 18 from his shows. And in February 2020, Armani once again proved himself ahead of the curve, when he was the only major name to move his autumn/winter 2020 show behind closed doors, as a precaution against Covid-19. He was resoundingly mocked in the press for overreacting, but within weeks, the world was placed in lockdown.
When the industry began to open up again, for spring/summer 2022, Armani returned by staging the collection of his menswear show at his own home in Milan, something he had not done since the 1990s. It also marked the first formal introduction of his second-in-command Leo Dell’Orco to a wider audience. Having worked with Armani for the best part of 40 years, Dell’Orco was publicly acknowledged as Armani’s successor on the menswear collections.
The designer's niece, Silvana Armani, already works on womenswear and was widely touted to take over full control. Speaking with Vogue at the show, Armani declared: “So I am preparing my future with the people who are around me, in my home.”
Despite this rare concession to age, Armani brought his runway show to Dubai in October 2021, the same month he received a golden visa for the UAE.
Held at the Armani Hotel, One Night Only, Dubai featured the full glamour of an Armani show brought to the Middle East, complete with a star-studded audience and a performance by Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
Speaking to The National earlier that year, the designer said: “Being able to do this job is a unique, fulfilling privilege that always pushes me to give my best. I love my work, and I am passionate about it, as I know that the lives of others are profoundly impacted by clothes and furnishings.”
His legacy, then, lives on.
