Giorgio Armani takes part in the Trofeo Zegna sailing race in Portofino, Italy, in 2000. As the sole owner of his global fashion brand, Mr. Armani was one of the richest men in Europe.Casilli Remo/Reuters
The death of a creative icon often comes adorned with the hackneyed and overworked phrase “end an era,” as if his or her passing was on par with the fall of Saigon or the Berlin Wall.
It is only a small exaggeration to say that the death of Giorgio Armani on Thursday, at 91 in Milan, marked the end of an era. He was more than one of the greatest creative forces in fashion since the 1970s. He was also a fiercely independent entrepreneur who refused to sell out to a French firm, as many of his Italian rivals did, apparently fearing that his company’s born-and-bred Italian identity would vanish into the maw of a bloodless, bottom-line-focused foreign conglomerate.
Mr. Armani was also a trailblazer in the fashion world, having virtually invented product placement by dressing Hollywood stars, starting with Diane Keaton in 1978; pushing into the increasingly rich Asian markets ahead of most competitors; and using brand extension that saw “Armani” bedaubed on everything from fragrances and cafés to hotels and furniture, turning it into a global brand with more than US$2.6-billion in annual revenue.
Giorgio Armani’s most iconic red carpet moments
The innovation worked, even if there were some missteps, including a headline-grabbing tax dispute and allegations of abusive labour practices in China. He probably could have made more money by listing his company on the stock exchange, or selling to a French conglomerate like LVMH (Prada, Bulgari, Fendi) or Kering (Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent), but he resisted every time, in good part, it seems, because he loved his work and did not want to be pushed aside.
“I’ve never taken drugs, yet for me the surge of adrenalin I get from work is better than any hallucination or artificial high,” he wrote in his autobiography, Per Amore (For Love), which was published in 2015 and updated in 2023. “It’s a kind of orgasm (if I may use that expression).”
Still, Mr. Armani was one of the richest men in Europe. Forbes last put his net worth at US$12.1-billion, all of it his. He was the sole shareholder of Giorgio Armani SpA of Milan and had no spouse or children.
Mr. Armani’s entrepreneurial flair propelled him and his company to the top of the fashion industry – he was often called the “king of fashion.”
When you were buying Armani, you were buying Giorgio’s understated Italian style. His clothing was pared down, not American flashy or British tweedy, as if his fashion sense was a precursor to today’s “quiet luxury” trend. The clean, minimalist lines of his clothing turned Mr. Armani into an Italian cultural icon and put Milan on the global fashion map.
His innovations included his emphasis on neutral colours, soft shoulders, relaxed fit and luxurious fabrics. His “unstructured” jackets were a graceful departure from the rigid, even boxy, styles then popular with both men and women. “When I began to design, men all dressed in the same way. American industry called the shots, with its technicians scattered all over the world … all impeccably equal, equally impeccable. The Mao syndrome,” Mr. Armani once told Emporio Armani magazine. “You couldn’t tell them apart. They had no defects. But I liked defect. I wanted to personalize the jacket.”
Mr. Armani, a former window dresser and men’s wear buyer, first focused on men’s fashion when he started his own business in 1975. But he soon made a splash in women’s clothing. “He redefined elegance,” said Susan Vo, a fashion savvy interpreter in Rome. “He was inspired by men’s tailoring and fabrics but translated them to feminine silhouettes, making women feel powerful, without trying to imitate men, preserving their sense of femininity, softness and mystery, all during the nineties when girl power was the rage. It was a new signature for allure.”
For a billionaire, Mr. Armani was surprisingly accessible. He was often spotted on the street outside his office in the charming Brera area of central Milan, usually casually dressed, unmistakable at a distance by his signature snow-white hair. He would be surrounded by a small knot of fashionistas. He was a basketball fan, making him an oddity in soccer-mad Italy, to the point he become the owner of the Olimpia Milano team. He attended the games regularly.
Giorgio Armani, the iconic Italian designer who turned the concept of understated elegance into a multibillion-dollar fashion empire, has died, his fashion house confirmed. He was 91.
The Associated Press
The future of Armani, the company, is now suddenly uncertain. His trusted inner circle of relatives, including his sister Rosanna, who is on the board of directors, and Pantaleo (Leo) Dell’Orco, his right-hand man, will have some crucial decisions to make in the next few months. Will they sell the company to a big-name conglomerate, list its shares on the stock market, or continue to try to push ahead as an independent, private company?
The bigger question: Can a business so closely identified with its founder continue to thrive without him? If the company insiders decide it cannot, Armani could well become just another brand in some luxury-goods colossus.
Then it really would be the end of an era. Italy spent the postwar decades building some of the most famous fashion brands on the planet, then decades unloading them to foreign companies, where some of them languished for lack of love and creativity, such as Gucci. Armani, the man and the company, were the last of their kind in Italy, national legends, in effect. The Italian fashion world without its proudest creation is like Italy without gelato.
