Armani dresseswomen ignored by high fashion

With a proud drumroll and a fancy Paris celebration, Giorgio Armani unveiled a new womenswear lineMonday that he’s dubbed the New Normal.

In black- and- white portraits by photographer Peter Lindbergh, models are dressed in an array of wearable, sophisticated sportswear that might remind shoppers of the kind of luxurious restraint typified by The Row or Céline or even COS— which is to say that the New Normal will remind them of classic Armani.

The advertising for the fall collection includes Eva Herzigova, Stella Tennant, Yasmin Le Bon and Nadja Auermann— not the most diverse group of supermodels, but all past the age of 40 ( Le Bon is now 51). In that way, they reflect the demographic of the women most likely able to afford these clothes, which range from $ 850 for a pair of trousers to $ 7,000 for outerwear. It is also Giorgio Armani showed his couture line , above, in Paris, as well as New Normal sportswear. Vittorio Zunino Celotto, Getty Images the demographic that fashion notoriously ignores.

To make a pair of trousers worth that kind of cash, there surely must be magic in them. While Armani is not promising any kind of voodoo, he is offering what he describes as “timeless garments that maintain the values of elegance and dignity.”

It seems like that would be an obvious goal for fashion at any time, but in the frock trade, nothing is ever quite that simple.

Even Armani had strayed from the source of his success.

Some 40 years ago, the designer established his reputation in menswear. And throughout the 1980s and ’ 90s, his acclaim grew as he turned his attention to womenswear and the red carpet

He helped women look powerful and capable thanks to his jackets with their soft shoulders, easy silhouettes and fabrics that gently draped. His color palette wasn’t overwhelmed with obvious jewel tones or precious pastels, but it wasn’t stark black or navy either. It was filled with subtle shades of gray and a thousand variations of beige. His clothes looked sophisticated.

But as much as fashion yearns for change, so do designers. In the 2000s, the industry as a whole became obsessed with ingenues, starlets, hipster artists and cultural curiosities.

Armani— the originator of clean- lined sophistication— has returned to his roots. “I wanted to create essential and concise pieces that summarize 40 years of style that have defied the test of time,” Armani said in an e- mail.