ONE NIGHT ONLY
Lauren Clarke Jensen sees Giorgio Armani’s star-studded New York moment
Armani’s party dazzles New York City in more ways than one
Traffic on Manhattan’s West side came to a halt as more than 700 guests crossed the West Side Highway and began pouring into the SuperPier at Hudson River Park to celebrate the world of Giorgio Armani with an exhibition, fashion show and late-night celebrityfuelled after party—I flew all the way from Singapore to attend the historic night. My first stop the evening I arrived was the opening night of “Eccentrico,” an exhibition which has been shown previously in Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Rome, and includes 51 looks from the Giorgio Armani and Armani Privé collections, along with a selection of jewellery, bags, shoes, brooches and head pieces from 1985 to present. They all share the commonality of being unique and unusual, and, in Mr Armani’s words, were chosen “because [they] represent an exuberant form of creativity that extends the concept of minimalism and rigour linked with my fashion design.”
In the darkly lit exhibition space, fashion dignitaries and ardent Armani fans like Glenn Close, who reminisced on her first Armani purchase—a doublebreasted gabardine jacket in the early ’80s—to the hoards of TV crew gathered, “I’m comfortable in my skin especially when I am in Armani,” she exclaimed. There was Lauren Hutton, admiring the sea of iridescent fish, crabs and
dolphins reinvented as brooches, buckles and clasps, Surrealist jewels and one-of-a-kind creations, including Lady Gaga’s futuristic, geometric mirrored mini dress designed by Armani for her 2010 Monster Ball tour—a metallic dress with exaggerated shoulders and a nipped-in waist, a design dreamt up for inclusion in The Metroplitan Museum of Art’s “Super Heroes” exhibition. I moved from exhibition space to the improvised catwalk in the expansive converted pier, dodging photographers stealing shots of Ricky Martin and Hilary Swank in front of the step-and-repeat. I found a long show space constructed especially for the 150 look fashion show that was about to start and would include Mr. Armani’s entire Armani Privé fall/winter 2013 collection, first shown during Paris haute couture week in July—a collection of ethereal gowns in light neutrals that danced down the runway, and classic Armani jackets paired with below-the-knee satin skirts or high-waisted pants. Then came highlights from every Armani Privé collection since Mr. Armani introduced couture on the 30-year anniversary of his company back in 2005. It was a walk down memory lane with hand-selected looks representing Armani’s extreme creativity and talent from shows with French titles like “lumiere de la nuit,” “eclats de pierres,” “lune” and an “homage au Japan.”
The evening ended with a late-night Cocktail Dinatoire with Naomi Watts, Leonardo DiCaprio and Renee Zellwegger among many other celebrity faces, mingling with the fashion’s A-listers, all who had turned out to pay tribute to an icon of fashion and honour, Mr Armani, on a day officially named Giorgio Armani Day by New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg.