Italian fashion designer and founder of the Armani empire Giorgio Armani has died, aged 91.
The Milan-based designer is best known for his Haute Couture line, which expanded into music, sport and luxury hotels.
He is acclaimed as one of the most successful Italian-born designers and is renowned for his red carpet designs.
"With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani," the fashion house said in a statement on Thursday.
He had been unwell for some time, and was forced to drop out of his group's shows at Milan's Men's Fashion Week in June, the first time in his career that he had missed one of his catwalk events.
The company did not give a cause of death.
Known as "Re Giorgio", or King Giorgio, the designer had a reputation for overseeing every detail of his collection and every aspect of his business, from advertising to fixing models' hair as they head out on to the runway.
A funeral chamber will be set up on Saturday and Sunday in Milan, the company said, followed by a private funeral at an unspecified date.
Creations for men and women
Armani borrowed from traditional codes of Italian suit design, but in using lighter weight fabrics and looser cuts, his more modern, pragmatic silhouettes redefined power dressing and ushered in decades of commercial success.
"My work has one single goal: giving women the inner strength that comes with being at ease, with who they are and what they are wearing," the designer — who usually sported a simple uniform of navy blue sweaters, cotton pants and white sneakers — told Vogue in 2022.
The choice of stars from Jodie Foster and Michele Pfeiffer to George Clooney and Leonardo Di Caprio, Armani made his first international splash with Richard Gere's wardrobe in the 1980 film "American Gigolo".
Draped on the back of the photogenic young star, Armani's unlined linen blazers and relaxed, sophisticated separates in muted shades like grey, beige and charcoal heralded a new unstructured, graceful way of dressing for men — and women who began clamouring for his new creations.
In 1982, Armani was featured on the cover of Time magazine under the headline "Giorgio's Gorgeous Style", a design aesthetic that catapulted the designer to the top of the fashion hierarchy, where he remained for decades.
Timeless, not trendy
Born July 11, 1934, in Piacenza in northern Italy, the young Armani enrolled in medical school, then the army, before his first job in fashion — working as a window dresser at a Milan department store.
In the mid-60s, renowned Italian designer Nino Cerruti offered Armani a job designing menswear. By 1973, Armani had opened his own Milan design studio, encouraged by his business and romantic partner Sergio Galeotti.
A debut eponymous collection came in 1975, at the age of 41.
Galeotti, whom Armani has credited as the company's soul in its early days, managed the financial side of the growing business until his death from AIDS in 1985.
From the company's beginnings, Armani eschewed ostentation and flash, making pared-down restraint — together with impeccable tailoring — the recipe for success.
Although some of his most famous fashion successes — think of TV series "Miami Vice" — today seem to belie his philosophy of timelessness over trendy, Armani's minimalism and monochromatic tones set him apart from contemporaries.
In particular, his understated looks offered a quieter, refined vision of late 20th-century Italian fashion than that of rival Gianni Versace, who favoured overtly sexy, colourful designs.
As women in the workplace began snatching up Armani's broad-shouldered power suits, he cemented his relationship with Hollywood as one of the first to dress the red carpet A-list.
Stores soon followed, along with lines for jeans, perfumes, underwear, sunglasses and ready-to-wear line Emporio Armani, making the designer ubiquitous from the mall to the closets of the ultra-wealthy.
Fame attracts scrutiny
After expanding into haute couture, interior design, hotels and even chocolates, Giorgio Armani posted revenues of 2.15 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in 2019, the year before Covid hit the luxury sector, making it Italy's second-biggest fashion house after Prada by sales, according to Deloitte.
Forbes has estimated that Armani himself was worth $US12.1 billion ($18.6 billion).
As the business grew, so did the scrutiny it attracted.
In 1999, the New York Times questioned the Guggenheim's decision to host a retrospective of the designer's work just months after he had become a major benefactor to the New York-based museum.
The museum denied any quid pro quo.
In 2014, the fashion house paid 270 million euros ($483 million) to settle an Italian tax dispute, newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
Ten years later, an Italian court placed under judicial administration an Armani-owned business accused of indirectly subcontracting production to Chinese companies that exploited workers.
Armani's unvarnished statements also sometimes generated controversy.
Speaking at Milan fashion week in 2020, Armani said: "I think it's time for me to say what I think. Women keep getting raped by designers."
He clarified what he meant — that he opposed fashion trends that sexualised women and limited their style options. The use of the word rape nevertheless shocked many.
'An Armani after Armani'
Armani was also fiercely defensive of the independence of his business, trusting only a few people.
"Success for me has never been about accumulating wealth, but rather the desire to say, through my work, the way I think," he wrote in GQ Italia in December 2017.
That independent stance leaves a question about what will become of his business in a luxury industry dominated by heavyweight groups.
Armani's heirs are expected to include his sister Rosanna, two nieces and a nephew working in the business, long-term collaborator Dell'Orco and a foundation.
Silvana and Roberta, the daughters of his late brother Sergio, as well as his nephew, Andrea Camerana, who is Rosanna's son, worked with him in the Armani group. Dell'Orco is also considered part of the family.
In "Per Amore" he vowed that his company would endure, curated by the people who had surrounded him.
"There will be an Armani after Armani," he wrote.
Reuters/AFP
