There haven’t been easy references to explain what I’ve done.” So he provided one. “Giorgio Morandi [Italian artist] has a colour palette very similar to mine. Three beiges, four greys. And in his work, a slight variation makes all the difference.” Morandi’s palette, intimate studies of pots in declensions of beige and grey, resonates with the vibe – and collectors – of the East. And with Armani. “ The East has had a direct influence on me, with its rational style of dress; a small jacket with a mandarin collar is the utmost in elegance and comfort. In all my collections there is definitely a touch of the East – always.”
Armani’s radical innovations transformed the face of contemporary fashion and inspired an entire generation to rethink conventional, gender-specific modes of dress. The Armani look is synonymous with androgynous elegance. His reconfiguration of the traditional suit from a rigidly tailored garment to an unstructured, flowing form gave new emphasis to the male physique, which had long been suppressed in business attire. And his adaptation of the man’s suit for women marked a liberating trend in womenswear.
And it all started with the jacket. “That is the point of departure for everything,” he told film director Martin Scorsese in Made in Milan in 1990. “I’ve updated the jacket without ever betraying its spirit.” He removed the padding and lining, and altered the way they were buttoned. “Women were looking for a style of dressing like a man in which they could move freely, like a second skin,” he said. In fact, overnight Armani created a new way for women to dress and a way for men to look at women, like a shared victory.” While it wasn’t unisex, it was about greater gentleness for men, and more strength for women.
He set a new standard, virtually inventing the modern epoch of red-carpet dressing and the fashion-celebrity relationship. His first collection was shown by Barney’s and, in 1978, Diane Keaton became the first American celebrity to wear one of his jackets while accepting her Best Actress award for Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
And then came 1980. Stop. The. Clocks. Richard Gere in Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo plays suave sex worker Julian Kaye, who in one of many famous scenes, curates a wardrobe of shirt choices for his night out, all of them Armani. It defined not just the film but the era’s ethics and taste, a symbol of new urban elegance and effortless luxury – the birth of the mass dandy – which continues to influence fashion today.
What made Gere’s trophy moment so apocryphal, his crystallising into an object among objects, was his counter-culture minimal sensibility. He goes against the grain by opting for subtle variations of one colour (recall Armani’s insight about Morandi above), earth-tone monochromes, selecting as though wanting to avoid and deflect attention. He somehow manages to highlight both masculine and feminine sides of himself yet cloaks himself in androgyny. And the numbers spoke for themselves. Giorgio Armani’s business recorded a mere US$14,000 in sales in its first year of operation in 1975. By 1981, the year after American Gigolo, turnover was US$135 million.
Armani got into fashion almost by accident. He was enrolled in the University of Milan’s medicine department, before trading it for time in the army. From there he jumped into photography and secured a job as a window dresser at Milan department store La Rinascente, before upgrading to a buying and merchandising position in the men’s department.
In 1965, Armani joined Nino Cerruti’s business, designing menswear and freelancing for other Italian houses. Soon after joining Cerruti, Armani met Sergio Galeotti, an architect 11 years his junior. Galeotti persuaded the 41-year-old Armani to open his own design office in Milan and they co-founded Giorgio Armani SpA in Milan in July 1975. They sold Armani’s Volkswagen Beetle to part-finance the venture. Within seven years of setting up, and baking in the post-glow of Gigolo, Armani was on the cover of Time magazine.
You could take the Armani out of America but you couldn’t take America out of the Armani. Barneys sold his clothes exclusively in New York and film luminaries such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg became clients. In a blink, Armani was designing the wardrobe for the Miami Vice television series – and by 1990, his next trophy moment was at hand.
Julia Roberts wore an Armani suit for the Golden Globes – chic tailoring, sapphic sartorialism, feminism meets serious chic; suddenly every actress in Hollywood wanted the same. Women’s Wear Daily called that year’s Oscars “The Armani Awards”. Jodie Foster collected her best-actress Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 in an oyster Armani suit. And Armani cemented long-standing relationships with Leonardo DiCaprio, Lady Gaga, Christian Bale, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett among others.
Such was his notoriety given the prevalence of Armanification in mens and womenswear across the planet – but most especially in Hollywood – wags would jest that Italy had the Pope and Giorgio Armani, and that the Italian designer was doing for fashion what Picasso had done for painting; i.e, emancipated and then revolutionised it.
Following the millennium, Armani continued to pioneer. He set up the Armani/Silos Museum in Milan which is currently showing Giorgio Armani Privé 2005 -2025 Twenty Years of Haute Couture until December, implemented sustainable initiatives throughout his business, banned the use of fur in his products (along with angora), and remained steadfastly independent despite approaches from the likes of Kering and Louis Vuitton. Three years ago Armani was asked how he viewed the contemporary fashion landscape. “What worries me is the proliferation of ever-larger conglomerates and the transformation of fashion into a form of unrestrained or purely visual entertainment, where all that matters is being there and being seen at all costs.”
The Italian fashion mogul, who died on September 4, aged 91, 50 years after setting up in Milan, has continued to surprise even with his passing. Bloomberg reports that instructions in his will require his heirs to sell an initial 15 percent stake in Giorgio Armani SpA to one of three preferred buyers – LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal – or a company of similar standing within 18 months. Should his heirs agree, that buyer would have the opportunity to increase its stake to a majority after three years, according to the will. As an alternative, Armani could be listed on a public stock market. Analysts value the company at US$8.2 billion.
As we went to print it was announced that to mark the 50th anniversary of his company’s founding, Giorgio Armani is the focus of a major exhibition at the prestigious Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan until January 11, 2026. The exhibition serves as a reflection on time, identity and elegance as a cultural language. An opportunity to discover how fashion, when it encounters art, can tell stories that endure.” As Giorgio Armani has done, and will continue doing.