Giorgio Armani still designs some of the world’s chicest clothes at 90

Giorgio Armani first came to New York in 1979 to collect an award from Neiman Marcus, then one of the world’s mightiest department stores. His company, barely five years old, was booming and a slightly louche film starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton was about to be released the following year. American Gigolo made him a household name. 

Armani, the US and celebrities have been an item ever since. Now 90 (he works out morning and evening, he tells me) he’s back in New York. This time with a show of 93 men’s and women’s looks. 

It’s fair to say he’s having another major moment, having just opened a three-storey flagship store at 760 Madison Avenue, one of the swankiest shopping addresses in Manhattan. This is Planet Armani, a brand new art-deco style temple where fans can buy not just ready-to-wear and custom-made Armani clothes, but accessories, perfume, furniture – and apartments. 

On the upper floors, the Armani Residences, twelve Armani-designed 2-5 bedroomed homes, priced between $8 million and $32 million, have all sold (the designer kept one for himself). Next  month, his restaurant opens. In case you were worried about the state of retail in New York, where, along with every major global city, some shops remain stubbornly empty, don’t. I have it on good authority that the 760 Armani store took $3 million dollars in its first three days. 

As for A-listers, they’re still more than happy to wear his clothes on the red carpet. Liev Schreiber and Meghann Fahey, two of the stars of the Netflix hit, The Perfect Couple, both attended the show, Fahey in a vintage beaded Armani mini dress. James Norton, Amanda Seyfried, Orlando Bloom, Pamela Anderson, Brooke Shields, Brie Larson and designers Michael Kors and Daniel Lee of Burberry were there too. 

Chaka Khan performed at the after-party and coaxed one of the best dressed crowds I’ve seen at a fashion event in years onto the dance floor. “Everyone told us we were mad to make the dress code black tie,” one Armani insider told me. “They said no one would do it. Look at them”. Even Giorgio had slipped out of his customary navy T shirt and chinos and into a black tux. 

One of the salient points about Armani and the reason his company, wholly owned by the designer himself, did 2.4 billion euros last year, is that the clothes he sells tend to make people look like their best selves. At some brands’ shows, the clients can look like a bizarrely dressed cult. 

In Armani, whether they go for a floor-length sparkly column dress, black velvet or a tuxedo, they look pretty damn sharp, and, as the various celebrities wearing outfits from the Armani archives proved, timeless. I asked him the secret to keeping the Armani look modern and relevant. “You must respond to the times,” he replied. “You need to understand what people need and offer something that’s both true to yourself and the current times. It’s an exciting daily challenge that never ceases to stimulate me.”

That tension between creating something new whilst recognisably Armani was as palpable on the catwalk as ever. Armani’s signature slouchy tailoring was whisked into jackets so airy and deconstructed most were like shirts. Buttonless coats were held in place with a single brooch. Feathery knits and diaphanous tunics and trousers were layered to create the sartorial equivalent of a souffle. 

For evening there were slinky satin dresses and teeny boleros. Here and there, a soft leather trench or jacket. Combined with turbans, the colours – washed out shades of blue, his beloved beige, and a foray into peach – looked like some kind of desert mirage. 

Admittedly, Armani customers will probably bypass the knickerbockers and sheer trousers (if they ever go into production) but they prove the designer is in as playful and experimental a mood as ever.  

The finale, all 93 models in a colour-sequenced caravan that filled the cavernous venue, had all the cinematic impact you could have hoped for.