Opinion The Armani way

When did Giorgio Armani learn the secret of fashion? Was it when he was a schoolboy in Milan in war-ravaged Italy of the late 1940s? In his 2023 autobiography, Per Amore, he recalled being the envy of classmates for the beautiful suits his mother would sew for the family: “We looked rich even though we were poor.” Or, was it as an adult, under the tutelage of Italian tailors, learning how to make clothes that command attention even as they soften the lines of the body?

Over the course of his six-decade-long career, Armani, who died this week at the age of 91, became known for teasing out the tension between such contradictions to create a uniquely sensual approach to clothing: Luxurious fabrics in minimalist executions, masculine silhouettes feminised and feminine shapes made angular. It was an approach to design that was decidedly modern, refusing to recognise older, rigid boundaries of hierarchy and propriety. This was how he transformed the suit — his most notable contribution to fashion. An Armani suit was not a uniform for the office drone; as worn by some of the most famous men and women of the time, from Richard Gere and Don Johnson to Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster, it was a quiet assertion of individuality, each piece draped to draw attention to the wearer’s personality.

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This emerged from a thoroughly modern understanding of fashion, as did his realisation of the publicity potential of celebrities. Among the earliest movers in styling Hollywood A-listers for film and award ceremonies, Armani began reaping the benefits of his foresight long before “who are you wearing” became the number one red carpet question. It made him a household name, helping him build a multi-billion-dollar empire over which he retained sole control till the end. Unlike peers such as Gucci and Versace, he remained indifferent to the overtures of conglomerates like LVMH. In life, fashion and business, Armani did it his way.