…………………..GIORGIO ARMANI………an ICON….a POWER HOUSE……a LEGEND…….has passed away at the age of 91…….FEW designers can claim to have changed the face and the course of fashion…..but Armani could, and he owned it……He burst upon the scene in the 70s, and by 1980 he was a house hold name……..I can recall at the age of 21….very slender…you had to be to wear Armani……going to Barneys down town to buy my first Armani suit….I HAD to have it…..In those days I could buy an Armani suit right off the rack….a 38-40 regular…..Who could forget Richard Gere in the 1980 movie…..”American Gigolo”…..The iconic scene….him standing bare chested in his bedroom…..pulling out of his closet one Armani suit after the other, laying them on his bed with coordinating Armani shirts and ties!!!EVERYONE who loved fashion wanted to dress in Armani!…..He deconstructed men’s and women’s clothing, but still had that indescribable Armani tailoring….that vision that was his alone…..but copied by many!…..Jac worked for Armani for many years…..Mr. Armani, as she would call him, booked her for a MONTH before his fashion show. He fit the samples for the collection on her. He thought she had the perfect body for his clothes….slender with broad shoulders…..Then she would do his shows….She traveled around the world for him……She had an understanding with him that if she took this very long booking, she would still be able to do other designers shows….he agreed…..He took very good care of her, and always booked her in lovely hotels not far from his atelier in Milan…..Even when she stopped going to Europe, when ever she would see him in NYC…..they always kissed and hugged. I could tell he was genuinely happy to see her. I met Mr. Armani through Jac…..She knew everyone….many more designers than me!…..He was a HANDS ON DESIGNER…..and was responsible for everything he touched….the clothing, the accessories….the home products, and the hotels he designed…..He worked until the end, and only missed ONE of his shows…..the very last one. He was too sick to attend……In the crazy world of fashion….where it seems sometimes to have gone off the deep end, and there’s very little to commend….with only a very few doing anything original……you could always count on Armani to bring us BEAUTY………No one can ever replace him……..There was and is only one……….GIORGIO ARMANI……..Rest in Peace Mr. Armani….your work and you will live forever.
My Daughter and I were using our points while flying out to LA in first class.
She told me to check out the man in the Armani suit re: what a beautiful piece of tailoring it was! That knowledge was obtained from her reading all the fashion mags!
Louis i really appreciate the information you share!
May he RIP