A few years back Giorgio Armani sent a T-shirt emblazoned with a portrait of himself as a young man down the runway. It was a fashion sensation, not least of all because it predated the industry’s current logo fixation. For his Pre-Fall Emporio Armani collection, he came at that fun idea in a different way, using archival sketches with distinctive ’80s silhouettes as a print on a neatly tailored blazer, and blowing them up as a Lurex jacquard on a full, flouncy knee-length skirt. With one of the most famous names in fashion, Armani could do a lot more of this kind of thing at his lower-priced line.
In the end, this collection was more serious than those two pieces might’ve suggested, but it was not without pep. Chalk that up to the bright shades of pink and turquoise that juxtaposed what was otherwise a lineup of mostly black and white, and to a fair number of bows, dots, and, on one cocktail-ready LBD, streamers of confetti-like beads.
