Before there was EA7—the technical sportswear Emporio offshoot whose ski/snowboard branding is seemingly on every lift in the Italian Alps—there was Giorgio Armani Neve. The ’90s label, long on ice until it was quietly revived in 2018, scaled the highest peak of the Armani range today with a series of looks that opened a show entitled “Tactile Impressions.”
Unlike most contemporary snow brands, Neve eschews feather—piumino—to fill its garments, which it instead layers in cashmere and wool. The mostly black pieces here came in velvet and more cashmere, plus some wool pinstripe, and despite a few nylon pieces were an overwhelmingly an attractive non-synthetic proposition. As the models walked past, one with a snowboard, there was not a whisper of the polyamide hiss of leg brushing leg. They walked around a central installation that looked like an enormous tray of ice cubes half melted. Whether Armani was making a less figurative ecological point than this season’s R-EA (recycled Emporio Armani) moment was not clear. What was is that the piece was made of repurposed plexiglass from his storefronts.
Once the Neve thinned out came a section of day looks, some of which absolutely flew: the strongest and most wantable menswear at Giorgio Armani in recent memory. This section was rich in tradition in that it reworked old-school cappotto di montone (long, loose mountain-designed shearlings that are specifically Italian but here were shelled in green velvet, greige wools, and other variations) and gently checked wools and cashmeres. The double-breasted nehru-collared cashmere jackets that came layered over matching waistcoats and pants were deconstructed but defined—as most jackets here—by exposed seams at the shoulder line. Pants were totally deconstructed apart from their ankle cuffs. Two abstract leopard-print cashmere/wool looks in particular resembled highly embraceable fleece suits. At various points Armani played with paisley seeds, zigzags, and other cheerily après-ski patterns.
A series of suits and elevated tracksuits in olive velvet were badly served by the Armani Teatro’s lighting. Where they had looked deep and rich backstage they reflected brittle white on the runway. Also in velvet close to the end were two jumpsuits with racing zips. These seemed anomalous but might have been a nod to the Ferrari Formula One driver Charles Leclerc, who was here alongside Taron Egerton. If Mr. Armani has any downtime booked post shows at his pad in St. Moritz, he can head there contented. This was chill.
