Giorgio Armani was a titan of Italian fashion and a global superpower in the world of luxury lifestyle. He passed away today, age 91, still in sole charge of his multi-billion-euro empire, making him one of the longest serving designers there has ever been.
‘With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving force,’ the fashion house said in a statement.
Armani did not appear at his runway show in June while he recovered from an unknown illness.
Giorgio Armani made many firsts. He was the first to reshape menswear in the 1980s with fluid, soft-shouldered silhouettes that were much copied and came to define that era. He was first to catch the zeitgeist in womenswear by creating a working wardrobe of power suits that spoke to boardroom (not bedroom) aspirations. He was the first major designer to infiltrate Hollywood in 1980 - first dressing Richard Gere in the cult classic American Gigolo, and some 300 subsequent movies including Goodfellas, Stealing Beauty and The Wolf of Wall Street. Indeed, he was the first fashion designer who truly understood the power of the red carpet and the celebrity front row, dressing everyone from Tina Turner and Cate Blanchett to Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.
Giorgio Armani was also the first to launch a ‘diffusion’ line, Emporio Armani, in 1981. He was an early adopter of the fashion billboard, branding and logos. He put luxury lifestyle into fashion advertising and understood the high-low effect of producing everything from underwear to his own couture line Armani Privé, which he launched in 2005. He went on to found Armani Casa, an entire home line, from wallpaper to pillowcases, Armani cafés and hotels.
Born in 1934, Armani lived through the trauma of war, and even watched his mother sell their silver spoons for bread.
He studied medicine but left before graduating in 1953 to complete his military service, where he served in a military hospital in Verona. He once said that this period in his life instilled in him the crucial discipline needed to become a fashion designer. It was, to the initial horror of his parents, that he became a designer instead of a doctor. Armani is rare in that he didn’t work for one of the great couture houses, or any designer; he was entirely self-taught. Learning everything, by himself from how to cut a suit to how to win at business.
He was an absolute one off. As a fashion designer, he believed in evolution not revolution. He rarely, if ever used named models, preferring instead that nothing should distract from his designs. Groups of young unknowns would skip out onto the runway smiling – yes, actually smiling – because Armani wanted his models to look like they were having fun. In a world full of sour automatons this was far from the norm.
Indefatigable until the end, the scale of his achievements are immeasurable. The deeply-tanned, white-haired, sapphire-eyed Giorgio Armani will be deeply missed. While his successes are legendary, his succession will, for the moment, remain unknown.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and the entire Giorgio Armani company.
Rebecca Lowthorpe worked as fashion director for Grazia from 2016 to 2019; she is currently Grazia’s acting assistant editor, overseeing fashion and beauty content.