Giorgio Armani's Resort collection drew together three distinct threads of his career: the combination of masculine and feminine elements, the architecture of haute couture, and the influence of 1930's-style movie star glamour. He long ago reconstructed the fundamentals of men's fashion with his women's suits, as he did with a pinstriped version in navy linen here. This season, he gave the jackets a new proportion: slightly shorter with a built-out shoulder. A man's necktie was abstracted as a trompe l'oeil detail. But there was nothing abstract about the couture spirit that was evident in the structure of a mesh jacket with a waistline that flared into a trumpet shape, or a cocktail dress with a huge grosgrain bow at the back.
Almost every look had some grosgrain, like the French cuffs that dressed up a long-sleeved tee, or the lining of a white satin jacket, or the waistcoat under Armani's version of Le Smoking. That kind of detailing not only added a dose of the haute Hollywood glamour that shaped young Giorgio's sensibility, but it also underscored the fact that this Resort collection wasn't the kind of free and easy garb you'd see at any old casual holiday affair. The furled lapels of one black jacket looked like something from a Horst photograph. Another, in a lacquered intrecciato, would have done Dietrich justice.
