A strange affair, destiny. The combination of choices, coincidences, and fortuitous encounters that shape a life. Giorgio Armani, designer and entrepreneur, became the King of Italian fashion despite never having dreamed of being a designer. An artist of proportions, a poet of measure, a far-sighted captain, Armani created much more than a fashion empire: he invented an idea of elegance tailored for real life, always choosing concreteness over theatricality, good taste over provocation.

From Medicine to Fashion: The Biography of King George

In the biographies of many designers, a love affair with fashion comes very early, even as children. Giorgio Armani is not one of them at all, also because his childhood was marked by war, by the fear of airplanes, and by waking up in the middle of the night to hide in the cellar. He also risked losing his sight when some kids set fire to gunpowder too close to his face. Having moved to Milan, he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the State University without any particular vocation – by his own admission – nor any particular eagerness to be a doctor. Conscription put his studies on hold, and upon his return, he did not retake his exams. He instead went to La Rinascente in Milan with the intention of finding work, any job. He was assigned to the clothing department, but the call of destiny did not come there. Again, another roll of the dice: the meeting with Nino Cerruti in 1965, a designer and a keen talent scout, who invited him to work with him and let him design the Hitman line. At a time when the word"stylist" did not yet exist, Cerruti saw in the then-unknown Giorgio Armani exceptional taste, a unique eye. In hindsight, it's easy to agree with him.

The first fashion show and the birth of Emporio Armani

Once again, chance intervened – fate, the Fates, as you will: another meeting, this time with Sergio Galeotti in Forte dei Marmi in 1966. It was he who pushed him further, who suggested he design on commission and set up his own business. The turning point came in 1974, with the fashion show that finally bore his name in Florence. The following year, Giorgio Armani Spa was born, which also dressed women from 1976. Armani's was a revolution conducted quietly, made of cuts and stitches measured with surgical precision: his clothes were intended to dress a self-confident woman who entered the workplace without asking permission. At the dawn of power dressing, Armani designed clothes made to be worn and not just admired, to follow the body, shortening the distance between the catwalks and the shops. Function meets form. Armani took the jacket—his crown jewel—and rewrote the rules of tailoring by dismantling it, unsheathing it, making it lighter and more relaxed on the shoulders. In a word, deconstructing it. We would be wrong to consider Armani a conservative today: he was a silk-gloved innovator.

The cover of Time and the success of American Gigolo

The 1980s were years of great growth, affirmation, and success. In 1981, the younger, more informal line, Emporio Armani, arrived, with the famous eagle logo (drawn by doodling on the phone). In 1982, he was consecrated by Time , which put him on the cover for his “gorgeous style.” An honor reserved before him for only one other designer (Christian Dior) and only one other Italian ( Pirandello ). The historic rivalry – expertly colored by the press – between Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace : the former classic and discreet, the latter bohemian and bold. Together, however, they brought Italian fashion in all its forms to the world, making it triumph in Hollywood. Cinema owes a lot to Armani, and vice versa : in American Gigolo , Richard Gere pulls matching Armani shirts, jackets, and ties out of his closet. It was better than any commercial: a new style, for a new man. Just when all the spotlight was on him, the shadow of the premature death of Sergio Galeotti, with whom he had built his company and shared his life for years, fell. Galeotti died at just 40, struck down by AIDS. Years later, Armani confessed in an interview with Corriere: “When Sergio died, a part of me died.”

The Armani style

Over the years, he has never revolutionized his style; rather, he has chosen to proceed with small brushstrokes, variations on a theme, in the name of his greatest quality: consistency. It is the concrete elegance that resists the twists and turns of time and fashion, without being seduced by trends. It is the midnight blue suit that saves us when we don't know what to wear. The Armani style is discreet without being shy, serious without being boring, impeccable without being snobbish. But Giorgio Armani was not just the jacket : his essential sense of elegance opened up to the suggestions of travel, in particular to oriental influences, transparencies and precious embroidery. Alongside his iconic midnight blue, a symbol of class and charm, Giorgio Armani invented a new color: greige, a neutral halfway between gray and beige, inspired by the sands of the Trebbia. And more: Emporio Armani denim, unisex fragrances, the sporty lines of EA7, the long love affair with cinema crowned by films like The Wolf of Wall Street . In 2005, the designer realized his dream of showing at the Paris Haute Couture with the Armani Privé line, a regular presence on the red carpet. You can never go wrong with an Armani dress, and over time the designer has been very careful to become an impartial figure, esteemed even by those who don't like or follow fashion. Is it perhaps a coincidence that he was the designer chosen by Giorgia Meloni to present herself as the first female prime minister? Armani, from this point of view, was an apolitical designer: he is a source of national pride, transversal, capable of bringing just about everyone into agreement.

Giorgio Armani's solidarity and civic commitment

Despite having the numbers to do so, Armani never wanted to sell the brand to international luxury conglomerates. Nor, much less, retire and leave his company in the hands of another designer. On the contrary: at 90, he said of himself, he had designed his most beautiful collections. There is one image that more than any other crystallizes the meticulous dedication Armani has always poured into his creation: the viral photos of him arranging the mannequins in the boutique on Via Montenapoleone, a job anyone could have done for him. If Giorgio Armani has won the hearts of all Italians, it is not only for his clothes or his unique sense of style, but for his constant commitment to others. In a discreet yet concrete way, like a true gentleman of another era. In February 2020, he was among the first to decide to hold his show behind closed doors, sensing the risks of the coronavirus, and thus protecting his employees and guests. When the war in Ukraine broke out, right during Milan Fashion Week, he held his show in silence, without music, as a sign of respect. He then donated €500,000 to the United Nations Refugee Organization. And again: after the fires that devastated Pantelleria, an island he considers a second home, he was on the front lines helping the affected communities. Even though the succession had already been prepared for some time with Leo Dell’Orco and his niece Silvana Armani, the void left by the designer will be difficult to fill. With him, fashion could count on a quality as necessary as it is undervalued in a world devoted to virality: a sense of proportion.