Giorgio Armani continues to WFH. Happily, however, Milan fashion’s OG can now once again have us join him in that home. Before this morning’s mainline show in the intimate Via Borgonuovo basement space under his HQ and alongside his own house, Mr. Armani gathered for a celebratory photo call with the Olimpia Milano squad. The Armani sponsored Milan basketball team clinched its 29th national championship yesterday, and joined us in the audience today.
Sitting downstairs courtside in that fashion arena a few minutes later, we saw some classic Armani plays unfold. In the palest of greiges and not-quite-pastels he deployed a broad range of soft-shouldered suiting over long flowing shirts. Mr. Armani said he was tired of sneakers, so instead there were derby sandals with cut-out uppers and velcro-fastened espadrilles. Jacket shapes ebbed and flowed back and forth between notched double-breasted and shawl single.
A tree-print silk shirt signaled the transition into more playful variations on the Armani standards. There was a great deal of fabric research in a collection that experimented with colors and patterns, sometimes pretty radically: you don’t often see purple at Armani. A brace of blousons worn with ties suggest that Mr Armani was once again chipping away at the codes of formalism. Jacket shapes echoed menswear paradigms from India to South East Asia: from the cool of Mr. Armani’s basement we were traveling without moving.
