With a total of 104 looks on the runway, Emporio Armani joined the Milan trend for a new length this season, meaning not just the midis, but also shows of an extreme duration. At Gucci, Alessandro Michele set the bar at a new high, at 119, although this season he folded both his men’s and women’s collections into one. Giorgio Armani showed some of his men’s looks here as well—very similar or possibly identical to pieces from the collection Luke Leitch reviewed in January. The primary result communicated on his runway was the vastness of a retail empire, and the humungous inventory of clothing that must be produced to fill its racks and shelves. The challenge is to summarize that.
Tempting as it may be to describe it as 104 shades of gray, it wasn’t—quite. Red and fuchsia made appearances mid-show. Yet it started with the feeling for black and white that is in the air this season, and that, historically, is pure Armani home territory. In this outing he translated it for the children of the first generation who discovered his grounded yet powerful suiting in the ’80s, by giving them sneakers and flats, and by offering synthetics alongside velvet and riffs on menswear checks. A clear plastic tailored blazer; a laminated herringbone pantsuit: These will be the guaranteed magnets for style magazine editorials.
Yet, really, Emporio Armani exists in the realm of everyday clothes. On that he delivered with a huge spectrum of outerwear, from tailored maxi coats to short spencer jackets to furry chubbies. The other strength of the Armani brand is, of course, eveningwear. The finale of this epic Emporio outing consisted of the most accessibly priced iterations of crystal-fringed evening columns and glittery coats Armani habitually provides for Hollywood actresses in his Armani Privé couture collection. Look 104 proved to be the punchline: a chic black velvet tuxedo jacket and white shirt, worn with fluid man-cut pants, the easy, androgynous epitome of everything this designer has stood for since the beginning.
