MILAN FASHION WEEK
Emporio Armani 40 years, the key moment of Milan Fashion Week the Emporio Armani show on Thursday, a rich and varied collection that was followed by an opening of the retrospective of the brand in Armani Silos.
Emporio Armani celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, with a spring 2022 fashion show full of ideas and a retrospective in the designer’s personal art gallery, in the key moment of Milan Fashion Week so far.
The show contained multiple references to Emporio codes – from non-colors to deconstructed tailoring – but there was much new in terms of skimpy, sophisticated drapery and a fresh, soft palette of neon colors.
With a generous gesture, Armani greeted his key designers in Emporio, his niece Silvana – who shares Giorgio’s razor-sharp jaw and piercing eyes – and his right arm Leo Dell’Orco.
A huge wave of applause flooded the Tadao Ando-designed auditorium, even though the strict social distancing meant there was just a third of the normal 700-strong audience.
“To be honest, when I saw these young models looking so good as they were about to hit the runway it made me feel proud,” Armani told a dozen Italian TV reporters, who crowded around him after the first. of the two shows.
He opened with jaunty saddle-stitched suits and fine woolen glass jackets for women and haute hobo patchwork jackets for men. His jackets were snug and concise in crinkled linen and his fatigue pants were languid and cut to the ankle.
The genius of Emporio is that this brand has invented a method for a younger generation to acquire and appreciate designer fashion and democratic pricing. And this collection was no exception.
Armani cut flawless chiffon cocktails in his non-colors of cement and lichen; and dazzled by curled and rolled up shantung Greek goddess dresses in purple and turquoise cut nicely on the thigh. Breaking new ground, he sent beautiful silk prints of ancient maps, Asian petals and tattoos.
Looking back, he recalled how he came up with the Emporio logo, after his founding partner, the late Sergio Galeotti, called him and asked him to invent a “Lacoste”, referring to the French brand’s crocodile logo. Armani’s answer was devised with the famous Emporio eagle, “because they soar high in the sky without borders”.
After the show, the designer inaugurated a well-prepared retrospective of his baby Emporio, called “The Way We Are”, with dozens of selected looks from all four decades set up inside Armani Silos, his personal museum.
Campaigns by photography greats such as Nan Goldin, Michel Comte, Aldo Fallai, Gilbert & George, Steven Klein, David LaChapelle, Peter Lindbergh, Roxanne Lowit, Steven Meisel and Max Vadukul crowded the walls.
Banks of images remembered all the famous Emporio sports model ambassadors: David Beckham, Cristiano Roland and Rafael Nadal. By the way, the gigantic Emporio Armani sign that greets all travelers when they land at Milan Linate airport, still remains the most distinctive advertisement of Italian fashion anywhere today.
It’s not bad to go to a young man who dropped out of medical school and worked hard as a window dresser before going on to create the most famous Italian brand of the last half century.
Alessandro Sicuro x Sure-com America
Alessandro Sicuro Comunication 