It’s the season of the jacket, and few can mint them as beautifully, and with as much variety, as the Milanese maestro. Look around: There are jackets everywhere from brands including Kiton, Massimo Alba, Brioni and Boglioli, for men and, more recently, for women, too.
Giorgio Armani made his name with the softly tailored, stripped down jacket for men, and has been making women’s jackets for decades. This season, though, he took production to a new level, sending out legions of them, in lightweight fabrics, white, watercolor pastels and iridescent shades.
Those jackets came with cutouts and a single bow knotted at the back; with stretchy or nipped waists; extra long, or boxy and cropped; with lapels or guru collars — or no collar at all. Armani paired them with wide trousers, harem pants, breezy trouser/skirt hybrids or floor-length swathes of tulle in smoky gray or white.
Although jackets stole this chic show, there was a lot more to see: tunic tops and vests layered over trousers, shalwar kameez-style; languid sarongs, and other, long skirts with a smudgy flower print, like a Monet painting.
A lineup of sparkly, boxy fringed tops closed the show, and as the models made their way down the catwalk, the tops resembled a series of bright little paintings on their way to be hung at the gallery. Little works of art, and craft, Armani style.
