Giorgio Armani Is Never Done

We sat down with the maestro to chat about, well...everything

- NICK SULLIVAN

IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH GIORGIO ARMANI-IT MUST BE nice and cozy under that rock-here's a brief primer. He made Italian fashion the focal point of global good taste when he founded his brand in 1975 and has kept it there ever since. His knack for riffing on his own style for different markets created the business playbook for the contemporary fashion brand. His pioneering success in Hollywood-he's outfitted more than 100 movies since his debut, including dressing Richard Gere for 1980's American Gigolo-propelled his cachet into the stratosphere. Armani is widely credited with establishing red-carpet fashion as an idea, and the Hollywood machine would be nowhere without him. And he still has plenty to say about it. Days before he turned 90 on July 11, Armani granted Esquire a rare interview.

Esquire: What is your earliest style memory? Giorgio Armani:

My mother getting us dressed in our Sunday best. We did not have much, but we had plenty of dignity, and that was a style lesson that stayed with me until this very day.