Giorgio Armani called his Emporio Armani collection "Fancy Week." Pragmatist that he is, though, he included not only fancy pants for parties, but also a solid core of chic urban sportswear for play and work. Armani's marriage of a shawl-collared, single-buttoned jacket and slightly slouchy pant is a contemporary classic; here it was just one facet of a collection that balanced structured, slightly stiffer fabrics with fluid materials: double-faced duchesse shorts with a languid silvery knit cardigan jacket, for instance, or a tailored jacket over baggy pants. A navy jacket and a white waistcoat were cut from a leather mesh, highlighting the sportiness of this line (though perforated fabrics are so omnipresent in fashion now that a case could be made for them as the twenty-first century's answer to lace). Evening looked strong and graphic in a little draped shift with a sun ray of beaded straps racing across the back, or a short-sleeved cropped jacket made up of strips of leather and chiffon and worn with black cigarette pants and heels.
