Armani’s love affair with London
Giorgio Armani yesterday described London as ‘the source of all creativity’ as he chose London Fashion Week to showcase his new collection for Emporio Armani, rather than usual location of choice, Milan
IT ISN’T every day that two of fashion’s biggest names decide to show during London Fashion Week. First was Donatella Versace who put Versus, her younger line, on the catwalk – in the imposing sleek minimalism of Central St Martins Fashion College.
A few hours later, it was Giorgio Armani’s turn. The two designers have often been pitched as each other’s archnemesis, but on one thing they agree – London is the source of all creativity, or so said Armani when we chatted before last night’s show.
That doesn’t mean that he can’t critique the city’s style. Two nights ago, he was dining at Cipriani when he couldn’t help but wince at a group of women who walked in. “They just had on too much of… everything,” he says. Except length: “They were wearing something a supermodel might wear, but without a supermodel’s legs.”
We’re chatting in a former tobacco wharf in East London, the site of last night’s Emporio Armani show. He last showed in London for a Bono-related charity event 10 years ago, but the Emporio Armani store on London’s Bond Street has just had a facelift so London – with a front row that included singers Ellie Goulding, One Direction’s Liam Payne, Dizzee Rascal and Tom Odell – seemed a good audience this season. “The city gives off energy everywhere you look,” he says.
At 83, he’s still mentally re-arranging everything around him to make it more aesthetically harmonious. From his hotels to his scents, from flowers to clothes, he has admirably flammable opinions. Asked what he thought of Balenciaga appropriating the enormous shoulders he made so ubiquitous in the Eighties, he responds: “Really, women don’t need to wear those kind of jackets anymore in the workplace. They can wear a chiffon dress.”
It so happens that there were chiffon dresses in his collection, with dainty frills rippling across the bodices and the occasional crab print scuttling down their fronts. There were jackets too, but small-shouldered.
Trousers had a major stride-on part, as they do in many other collections this season. Sitting on the navel, or just below, these were a desirable marriage of feminine contouring and masculine swagger. When he wants, he makes some of the most elegant trousers
‘I would love to see the Queen in some classic Armani tones’
around, and these – gimmick free, with roomy pockets – will be on many shopping lists next season.
This was a strong collection, fizzing with playful touches, such as mesh-trainer-bootees and underwater inspired prints and weaves, while offering plenty of clothes to wear to work or dinner. Increasingly, however, there’s little difference between the two. The sub-categorisations come from individual tribes – those who dress in streetwear the whole time, or the ones who dress up 24/7.
Asked whether this un chacteristically zesty collection had been inspired by the Queen’s love of searing primary colours, he becomes reflective. “I adore the Queen” (nb ALL designers love the Queen). “But I would love to see her in some classic Armani tones.”
‘They just had on too much... of everything