Interview With The Maestro

As GIORGIO ARMANI prepares to show his latest couture confections — and make a welcome return to London fashion week with his Emporio line — BAZAAR enjoys a rare audience with the reigning king of Italian sophistication.

- Justine Picardie

EARLY IN THE MORNING BEFORE GIORGIO ARMANI’S LATEST COUTURE SHOW in Paris, the maestro is as calm as always, at work with his team in an atelier lined with wardrobe rails of flowing black gowns that make up a significant part of the collection. Every feature is exquisite — intricate crystal beading and embroidery; clouds of dark feathers; fluid layers of tulle and sinuous velvet — while Mr Armani, watchful and alert as an orchestral conductor, makes his final adjustments to create an elegant symphony that is the purest expression of his prevailing vision of beauty. 

At 83, he looks remarkably healthy: tanned, trim and dressed in his signature uniform of a midnight blue T-shirt and navy trousers. His steady gaze notices everything — as soon as we have greeted each other, he has already taken in the details of what I am wearing (ballet pumps, a floral chiffon blouse and jeans). He refers to these almost immediately, when I ask him about his decision to stage his latest Emporio Armani show during London fashion week in September (to coincide with the reopening of his Bond Street store). “I’ve been away from London for quite some time,” he says. “The city has changed, I’ve changed, and fashion has changed. But what has stayed the same is my desire to express myself. Because in this rapidly changing world, you can be influenced, dragged in one direction or another, and lose your own identity. But I have eyes and ears; I look around and listen, and I’ve noticed that you wear jeans in a beautiful way, which maybe 10 years ago you wouldn’t have done. So this is what it means, this is the London of 2017, 2018. And now I consider London to be more sophisticated, perhaps, than before.”