If the Emporio show the other day suggested Giorgio Armani was feeling rootsy, the presence of Robert De Niro in today's front row compounded that, even if the actor didn't look particularly enthralled by the passing parade. Too bad, because it was actually a vintage Armani presentation.
The show notes posed it as a reaction to contemporary men's fashion. "Fake rules set by a media consensus," those notes pointedly declared. Such aggressive contrariness might be an Armani staple, but it belies the serenity of the clothes: the muted colors, the body-limning caress of the jackets, the suits as easy as pajamas. Armani's omnipresence has turned all of this into cliché, but it didn't exist before him, and that is surely the salutary import of these shows in his 40th year in business. And it is scarcely as if the man is resting on his laurels. What stood out about the show today is how Armani continues to unstuff menswear. There was scarcely a shirt in sight. Waistcoats closed diagonally over bare chests. And if that effect had a certain indolence, the generously pleated volumes of the trousers sustained it. So did the fishermen's sandals.
At one point, a model pushed a bicycle around the runway. The Emporio presentation had Vespas lined up in the lobby. If Armani wanted to make a point about a more organic response to city life, a bicycle was certainly it. But there is something organic about his clothes. The collection of womenswear he showed alongside the men's clothes today is apparently called the New Normal. If that means commonsensically human, then all power to it—and the man who made it.
