ARMANI VS GOLIATH

WITH ANOTHER MAJOR FASHION AWARD UNDER HIS BELT, GIORGIO ARMANI, NOW 85, IS WORKING HARDER THAN EVER TO BURNISH HIS BRAND – AND SECURE AN INDEPENDENT FUTURE. JOHN ARLIDGE TALKS TO THIS MOST INFLUENTIAL OF DESIGNERS.

- JOHN ARLIDGE

Cate Blanchett was there. So were Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Naomi Campbell, Naomi Watts, Kylie Minogue, and Rihanna. They and many hundreds more filled the Royal Albert Hall in London last December to make a fuss of a man whose style can be best summed up as “I hate fuss”.

Giorgio Armani didn’t mind, of course. He more than earned his Outstanding Achievement accolade at The Fashion Awards 2019. He is the CEO, founder, chairman, creative director, chief designer and owner of a global brand Bloomberg estimates is worth US$6 billion – and the last of a generation of super-designers, still designing multiple collections under his own name, almost half a century after he started.

Whether you like his clothes or not, one thing not even his harshest critics can deny is that he is the most influential designer of the modern era because, more than anyone else, he has taken the fear out of fashion and democratized it. In the 1970s, he became the first designer to rip – literally – the stuffing out of tailoring by introducing looser-fitting but still flattering clothes. His signature look is elegant, drapey gowns, slouchy trousers and cardigan jackets in safe colors, usually navy, greige, sand, and taupe. This ‘smart but not too formal, fashionable but not edgy’ style has created a working wardrobe for a generation of women. Blame him for pant suits. It has also made men – not just David Beckham – comfortable with the idea of buying and wearing fashion for the first time. Lawyers wear Armani too.