Last year, when I asked Giorgio Armani if the current crisis had brought back wartime memories, he said, “Not really.” As the only working designer who remembers the interwar period and lived through World War II, Armani—born in 1934—has a no-nonsense approach to a hopeful fashion climate that likes to throw around operatic parallels to the Roaring Twenties or the New Look of ’47. He thought about his collection for our reemergence from lockdown this fall with the same caution and stoicism that made him the first designer to cancel a show amid the arrival of the pandemic exactly a year ago this week.
Of course, “I certainly designed this collection with better times in mind,” he wrote in an email, but the casual-sporty silhouette that defined the women’s proposal—austere, broad-lapeled tailoring and coats, ladylike parkas, soft breeches, and sarouels—was decidedly sensible minded. And yet it was a quirkier proposal than the restrained and very beautiful poetry that embodied his haute couture collection last month. The spiral ruffles that adorned many garments had some sprightly optimism to their bounce, and glitter and crystal moments were clearly tailored to a party mood.
The men’s silhouette embodied an idea of the transitional wardrobe—not the seasonal kind but our impending shift from sofa to sidewalk. Unstructured jackets that could practically have been shirts or cardigans negotiated comfort and formality, backed up by sweaters patterned in a motif of square color blocks we might coin Mondriarmani. “Our habits of dressing have been impacted by the requirement to stay at home. We may have started to value comfort and ease more and more in our outfits,” said Armani.
“This has somehow worked in my favor, as comfort is something I have always seen as paramount to the success of my work. If you feel comfortable in your clothes, you feel confident. But the dressing-down trend will have done nothing to dent our desire to look good and our craving for beauty and elegance. And do not forget, you can still be elegant even if you are dressing in a more casual and relaxed way,” he wrote. “However, I do predict that when we are allowed to pursue our lives in a more normal way, there will be a resurgence of dressing up as people socialize again. And in this context, elegance never goes out of style.”
Both the women’s and the men’s shows—designed simultaneously but presented separately—circled around a bright green gorilla statue originally given to Armani by his sister. Other than underscoring his love for animals—his private zoo in Broni houses everything from flamingos to alpacas and an inseparable horse-and-donkey duo—its purpose was simply to surprise. That sentiment was reflected in garments that detoured from expected Armani territory. Suddenly a wildly embellished poncho popped up in the women’s collection, giving you New Romantic vibes, and the menswear offered impulses such as a glam leopard jacket and louche kimonos for the lockdown playboy.
“Fashion is surprise, isn’t it?” Armani wrote. “It should be a boost of energy and irony.” He admitted those motivations also fueled the inclusion of his own Bob Krieger portrait rendered in crystals on an evening dress. “An ironic wink,” he called it. The T-shirts with that same image sell up a storm at his Armani/Silos gift shop in Milan, and in a post-pandemic economy, superstar merchandise might be the only thing that never goes out of fashion. “The public responds well to me being on the dresses, and I do not mind that,” Armani wrote, another ironic wink implied. “Please forgive this whim.”
