MODA / FASHION
REMEMBERING ARMANI All that remained was silence, and within it style. Forever The final emperor of Italian fashion has died at the age of 91, leaving behind not only a global empire, but also an aesthetic that’s so deeply engraved into the cultural imagination that it seems eternal W hile others construct- ed their fashion hous- es on causing a com- motion and on hype, he built his on whis- pers and restraint. His soft tailored jack- ets liberated men from stiff formality, while his “power suits” armed women for the boardrooms of the ‘80s. The re- sult was a seismic shift, though Arm- ani himself would have merely waved his hand at such drama. Everything was very simple for him: clothes should make you look like the best version of yourself. That was his revolution. He was famously Richard Gere’s silent style guru for the film American Gigolo — in which every unstructured blazer and silk tie was transformed into some kind of cinematic seduction. He dressed the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, Jodie Fos- ter and Sophia Loren, while he launched Cate Blanchett down red carpets like the living embodiment of some mar- ble statue. He turned Hollywood into his own studio and was in turn canon- ised by Hollywood. Giorgio Armani re- drew the map between Milan and Los Angeles, turning it into a sparkling di- rect corridor. But his strength nonetheless came from something almost monastic. Arma- ni preferred “greige” to sequins and fa- voured structure over spectacle. His Mi- lan HQ was as austere as a monastery;
his uniform – represented by the same dark blue t-shirt and trousers – was worn like a vow. If Versace was Diony- sus, then Armani was Apollo. He was meant to become a doctor, but he quit during the second year of his studies, when he realised that he’d nev- er manage to overcome his aversion to blood. It was during his college years that he first tried his hand at photogra- phy, which is how he landed his first job – at Milan’s La Rinascente depart- ment store back in 1957, where he be- came one of those responsible for win- dow dressing. He was promoted quickly and soon became a key figure in one of the store’s first concept boutiques. That job took him on business trips to Eng- land, where he familiarised himself with bold new fashion ideas that were a long way from the Italian fashion of the time. He began sourcing goods for his store from the Far East, which led to his fascination with the Orient, but al- so with Japanese and Chinese art and lifestyles, to which he remained faithful until the end. Armani’s career developed rapidly, but he had much bigger dreams – back then he was already sketching designs for his first pieces. And he was guided in those first creations by the idea that he had to create the kind of clothes that couldn’t be bought anywhere. The most impor- tant event of that part of his life was his 1961 meeting with stylist Nino Cerut- ti, who offered him the job of an assis- tant and the opportunity to work in- dependently on parts of Cerutti’s new
collections. And so it was that Arma- ni’s first designs hit the market under Cerutti’s Hitman line. Armani was perceived by many during his lifetime as a “collected, restrained and even cold man,” but he borrowed Kandinsky’s definition, describing him- self as being “like a piece of ice with a flame burning inside it”. In his later years, with the industry racing towards chaos fuelled by hyperproduction, Arm- ani remained a stronghold of stabili- ty, a reminder of the values of another age: discretion, craftsmanship, the slow flame of desire. He was never interested in going viral. His work was about dura- bility and conducting a silent conversa- tion through the decades. It is tempting to dub his creations “timeless”, but they were really be- yond the very notion of time. Arma- ni’s 1980 suit looks as contemporary to- day as it did when Gere wore it in front of that hotel mirror. His gift was to ren- der fashion less like a trend and more like an heirloom — something you car- ry with you, in silence, forever. With his departure from this world, we are now left with the silence that he himself loved. But it isn’t an empty silence. It’s the silence of a perfectly tailored suit, the calmness of a star before the camer- as flash, the pause just before a woman enters a room and changes it. And so it is that the last emperor has left the stage. But the world that he shaped — a world of soft jackets, silent strength and elegance worn like a sec- ond skin — remains.
68 | Moda » Fashion
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