Giorgio On My Mind: Mr Armani Talks To British Vogue About His 50 Years In Fashion

Like many who grew up in the shadow of war, it was cinema that offered the young Armani an escape: Italian neorealism, then the glimmering technicolour of Hollywood. With a foresightedness all but then unique in his world, he began to dress the stars themselves in public and, enduringly, on the red carpet. In 1978, Diane Keaton accepted her best actress Oscar for Annie Hall in a neutral-coloured, deconstructed Armani jacket in crumpled linen and a layered skirt. By 1990, so ubiquitous was the label on the red carpet that the Oscars was nicknamed The Armani Awards.

“What happened with my fashion and Hollywood was an extremely fruitful and advantageous two-way exchange,” he explains. “It was mainly the new stars, lightyears away from the Golden Age personalities, who engaged with my very personal and natural vision of fashion.” Still his eveningwear – sweeping dresses with plunging necklines or the classic structured strapless columns beloved by Cate Blanchett and Zendaya – dominate awards season.

Perhaps that is because Armani knows exactly how to do glamour without being ostentatious. Though sometimes, quite often actually, he surprises with vibrant bursts of colour and unexpected exercises in experimentation. Take Kate Moss on the December 2001 cover of British Vogue, in tomato red tulle. “I really like to push my limits,” he admits, but – naturally enough – “my approach is careful and considered. I call myself an eccentric to a certain extent and varying degrees of exuberance can be found in all my work.”

The mercurial Sergio Galeotti died young, in 1985 on the 10th anniversary of a company he had, it turned out, been very good at managing. “Whatever I did in work was done for Sergio,” Armani once said, “and Sergio did everything for me. So that was the heart.” Meanwhile, Irene Pantone, the secretarial student from long ago, only retired in the last few years, having been with Armani her entire working life.

And what of the man himself? He is, at 90, effectively the sole shareholder, holding the company’s independence in a famously tight grip. “The future of the Armani Group will be decided and governed by the Foundation,” he says of the governing body of close associates he set up in 2016. In the end, perhaps, it’s all about celebration. “To me style is not about being noticed,” Armani concludes, “it’s about being remembered.”