Giorgio Armani On The Return Of Physical Shows And The Future Of His Brand

Monday’s Giorgio Armani menswear show—his first physical presentation since sensing the danger ahead in February 2020 and disinviting his physical audience—was rather extraordinary. We were watching this collection in Mr. Armani’s own house, sitting studiously apart in a Japanese-inflected, bamboo fringed space that led out to his probably hand-manicured garden. Backstage the line-out stretched downstairs into the subterranean basement show space where the designer showed some of his very earliest shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s: to have even fleeting access here was a rare privilege indeed. Then came the collection, which my colleague Anders Christian Madsen has all the intel on. Once the last of the models had walked and Mr. Armani had taken his bow alongside his longtime collaborator Leo Dell’Orco—another unusual move—he lingered in a gazebo at the back of his garden to meet his guests. First the crème de la crème, including Milan’s mayor Beppe Sala, stepped in to pay their respects. Then came the rabble: Italy’s fashion Fourth Estate and a few international stragglers were invited to crunch up the gravel in his direction. When we arrived Mr. Armani greeted all and sundry with enthusiasm, before telling us he had something to say. Read more at Vogue.