Giorgio Armani: the irreplaceable Il Signore

Giorgio Armani at Home (Photo by �� Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

(Image credit: Adriano Alecchi/Mondadori via Getty Images)

“Life,” Giorgio Armani once observed, “is a movie. And my clothes are the costumes.” It was an attitude that served him well, says Vogue. The legendary “Il Signor”, who has died aged 91, was “unarguably the most successful Italian designer in history” – credited with designing “the uniform of aspiration that both defined the 1980s and shaped the course of fashion beyond it”.

The business he began from scratch in 1975, “funded with the sale of his Volkswagen Beetle”, eventually came to employ 8,000 worldwide and earned him a $12 billion personal fortune. By the time of his death, notes the Financial Times, the fastidiously independent Armani – who called the shots at his company until the very end – had built “the world’s largest private luxury brand”.

Armani “almost single-handedly established Milan as a serious rival to Paris as the world’s fashion capital”, says The Telegraph. A great populariser, he shrugged off the snobberies of haute couture, saying he only wished “to make men and women look better”. Credited with considerable commercial nous, he didn’t object when a profitable industry sprang up in counterfeit Giorgio Armani products. “Actually,” he once said, “I am very glad that people can buy Armani – even if it’s a fake. I like the fact that I’m so popular around the world.”

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Born in Piacenza, south of Milan, in 1934, Armani was the second of three children. He later cited growing up under the fascist Mussolini regime for his dislike of structured uniforms. Accordingly, “when he began to design, he turned his attention first to that emblem of male hierarchy, the suit”. He took a few detours getting there. Armani’s initial ambition was to become a doctor and he studied medicine at the University of Milan for three years before a stint at an army hospital “scotched” the inclination. Turning to photography, he approached Milan’s leading department store, La Rinascente, and “soon found himself working on its window displays”.

A formative stint working on Nino Cerruti’s Hitman label followed. Here, Armani “learned the economics of fashion” and earned the enduring respect of his boss. Cerruti later denied any suggestion that he had “discovered” Armani; he said Armani had “discovered himself”. Nonetheless it was Armani’s boyfriend, Sergio Galeotti, an architectural draughtsman, who persuaded him to form his own company and set up the early deals.

Who will carry Giorgio Armani's legacy forward?

Armani’s fluid tailoring – in his trademark subdued palette – turned heads from the start as the antithesis of both of Savile Row orthodoxy and the hippy philosophy of the 1970s. But his breakthrough came in 1980 when he dressed Richard Gere in the film American Gigolo. Almost overnight, he told The Economist, the label became “a sensation”. In 1983, Armani became the first designer to open an office in LA. Where Hollywood led, suave businessmen followed, and Armani swiftly followed up with a line for working women. When Galeotti died in 1985, Armani became introspective, says The Telegraph, but continued expanding the business – establishing “a pyramid of brands targeting different price levels”. The 1990s were marked by diversification into sunglasses, sportswear and restaurants.

For all his success, he retained “a sense of melancholy” and “a shyness”, says The Telegraph. He was happiest at his home on the remote Sicilian island of Pantelleria and sailing the Mediterranean on his yacht. In his later years, Armani involved various nephews and nieces in the business. Pantaleo Dell’Orco, who heads the men’s style office, has also taken on an increasingly important role. But Armani’s iron grip on the company leaves the question of who will succeed him unanswered. He knew as much himself. “I don’t know how any of us can think any of this is replicable without me.”

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.