Giorgio Armani continued his 40th-anniversary festivities this afternoon with a press conference and lunch in honor of his new self-titled book of family photographs and personal remembrances. The 81-year-old designer was in a celebratory frame of mind, even making a joke about his nose: “I was born with it,” he said, pointing to the baby picture hanging behind him onstage. But if the press conference was a moment for reflection, and his recently opened museum is the repository for four decades’ worth of designs, today's runway show wasn't the walk down memory lane that might've been expected.
Instead, Armani chose a color little associated with his work, red, and made it the focus of a collection that was also noteworthy for its lightness, a quality that happens to be synonymous with him. His notes specified shades of flame, lacquer, and geranium, and more often than not he juxtaposed them with navy, icy gray, and white. Coupled with graphic treatments like woven stripes, polka dots, and lozenge embroideries, the palette gave the show a shipshape clarity quite in contrast to the hazy pastels of the Emporio Armani collection he presented last week.
Where the Emporio show was awash with pants, here he was interested in walking shorts and abbreviated, full skirts. The trousers he did put on the runway were almost sheer and layered over opaque leggings for a look that was more discreet than seen elsewhere this season. (A see-through skirt or two showed off more than he probably bargained for.) Tailored one-button jackets in that same filmy material were the best pieces in the collection. Though they were rather elaborately stitched with glinting glass beads and silk cord embroidery, they, too, looked airy and weightless, a real feat.
