Giorgio Armani Decodes His SS'18 Menswear Collection For The Dapper Groom
He liberated men and women from the restraints of traditional tailoring and introduced them to the pleasures of casual chic. As one of Italy’s last-surviving fashion emperors, Giorgio Armani decodes his SS’18 menswear collection for the dapper groom, in an exclusive with BRIDES TODAY.
At 83, Giorgio Armani looks remarkably healthy: tanned, trimmed, and dressed in his signature uniform of a midnight blue T-shirt and navy blue trousers. With a humble bow, in the midst of well-built men standing tall, he takes his leave quietly from the cavernous environs of Armani/Silos—a fashion museum in Milan’s Via Bergognone, dedicated to the Armani style. His Giorgio Armani SS’18 menswear collection is presented two days after he has showcased his Emporio Armani line at Milan Fashion Week. Immediately after, the team at Armani’s ateliers have started to add finishing touches to the haute couture collection that will be presented later in Paris. But how does he do it all? Apart from menswear, Armani has also dabbled in womenswear, accessories, footwear, cosmetics, and home décor. In his four decades as head of the Giorgio Armani brand, he has been heralded as an innovator and, in recent years, sometimes criticised for no longer innovating. Yet through all the highs and lows—this is fashion, after all—his company endures and expands. And if complexity sounds like a paradox, it’s one of his unique achievements. His ability to make spontaneous, witty, poetic, madly creative leaps has made him a living legend.
Armani was born during the Depression, in July 1934, in the northern Italian city of Piacenza, which suffered intensive bombing during World War II. After enduring a long spell in the hospital—the result of a childhood trauma during the war, when he was badly burned by an exploding shell—Armani nurtured an early ambition to become a doctor. He spent three years studying medicine but eventually decided that he needed to get a job to help support his family. His rise to become the most commercially successful designer in post-war European history began in the late 1950s when he found work at a department store in Milan, La Rinascente, initially as a window dresser. From there, Armani moved into fashion design, employed by the Italian textile magnate Nino Cerruti, but it was not until he turned 40 that he felt able to contemplate launching his own brand. And even then, this only came about because of the love and support of his late partner, Sergio Galeotti (he tragically died in 1985 due to AIDS), who encouraged Armani to take the risk of setting up a business. Success was swift, in part because the subtle androgyny of the Armani look proved to be the ideal sartorial choice for a new generation of working women (as well as men) for whom feminism did not preclude fashion. “I think my solution has always been to continuously yet subtly innovate: in this way, the classic, elegant, and minimal never become boring, but are constantly redesigned, softened, and made more fluid for an interesting, ever-current result,” he says talking about his design aesthetic. Until Armani, most “business suits” were boxy and stiff. Armani, wanting a softer profile, sliced out the shoulder pads. He cut the pants fuller. Everything seemed to have become looser—as a reaction against hierarchy, a distrust of conformity, and rigidity in all its incarnations. And then there was his palette of dusty grey and green and brown—the earthy colours which have continued to infiltrate his collections even now.
Armani, along with Gianni Versace, was one of the first designers to dress celebrities at red carpet events. “After the success of American Gigolo, on which I collaborated designing costumes for Richard Gere, it was immediately clear to me the strong impact that actors could have on the public,” he says, talking about his major gig in the 1980 American film. “It was unintended yet extremely effective publicity for my fashion creations and from there to dressing actors and actresses on the red carpet, where old Hollywood glamour still reigned, it was a quick transition,” he adds. From Leonardo DiCaprio to Dev Patel, Armani offered an image of elegance to the stars, something fresher and less lavish, which has now become successful. We ask Armani his thoughts on India as an inspiration for his namesake label, to which he responds by telling us, “India has a rich culture and a specific aesthetic; it has often inspired new collections over the years. I particularly like the country’s dynamism in which traditions are still very much alive, with a concept of visible luxury closely tied to popular culture. It is one of those places capable of enriching the mind with images and strong spirituality.” Talking about grooms in India, he says, “On one of the most important days of your life, I would suggest going for a befitting, elegant suit that’s becoming and makes you feel perfectly at ease.”
The SS’18 collection, named “Made in Armani”, encapsulates a pretty accurate index of the designer’s strengths. There is a long double-breasted trenchcoat in a crushed and crunchy linen mix, a high-cut peacoat in nubby grey wool, an iridescent silver notch-lapelled suit, and a series of high-hemmed jackets—all offering elegance and originality without being too extravagant. “For the spring/summer, I revisited my brand’s key menswear pieces, re-proposing the most classic outerwear designs with a fresh look, choosing summery colours, optical prints, and modern shapes,” he tells us, talking about his inspiration behind the same. “The result is new comfort and freshness in a captivating contrast, but which never gets carried away,” he adds. A chic lineup of all-white suits, some of them in seersucker, others with two buttons or three buttons, shawl collars or narrow-peaked lapels, close the show with a crystal clear message: when it comes to an unconstricted suit, there’s no one who does it better than Armani.
And this is the side of fashion in Italy that outsiders have always been drawn to, where clothing and concept are married in one extravagant phenomena. Giorgio Armani stands out as a natural heir to past masters of the form because he so effectively balances both, and more so now than ever. The softly tailored jackets; the sensual knit sweaters; the earthy colours; the summery lightness of a passage of white garments; the sense of a particularly romantic form of gay eroticism, soon to merge with mainstream culture, can be laid to Armani as part of his legacy. If those things can occasionally seem dated, it is worth remembering—particularly in an age of Tinder, Grindr, and shifting national boundaries—that fashion is rooted in Eros and that the easy sensuality of which he is an author, is inevitably an element of his creative truth.
Watch the full show here -
All images: courtesy.