BEAUTY: Clothing--Emporio Armani

I love Giorgio Armani: I say it every time I blog about his work. Every season for his own eponymous label or for his Emporio Armani line (the more causal and sportier version of Armani), I swoon at what his house creates and sends down the runway. I respond most to designers, designs, and shows that have a strong inspiration and concept, and a near-performance art presentation. But Armani does not need concepts. He has been creating his own sense of easy luxury for nearly half a century now, and it's still fresh and relevant today.

He deconstructed the men's suit in the 80s, turning it into something soft and sensual, something sexy and flowing, without altering the basic concept of what it was. He removed layers of felting inside suits, making them relaxed and able to behave like thin silk. Just take a look at the iconic clothing from the film "American Gigolo" and you will see what I mean. It was soft and casual with a sense of effortless power. This revolution rippled out into the industry and we see its waves even now: designers still grapple with ways to make suiting less stiff, to make clothing more luxe without being precious, and to make pieces with more innate ease without being sloppy. In short, to make clothes more Armani. But no one does Armani like Armani. Clean lined and impeccably tailored, Armani's sensibility is about luxe fabrics and the way a garment hangs and drapes on the body (of both men and women).

But there is something else that I really respond to in each Armani collection and that is a vague sense, a shadow, an echo of historical fashion. The way a jacket or coat is cut or its stance, the inclusion of waistcoats, belted outerwear, loose cut and high waisted trousers...it all reminds me of...what, the 1920s and 30s? The 1880s? The 1940s and 50s? Yes to all of it. I say Armani doesn't need a concept but this Fall-Winter '23-'24 collection at Milano Moda Uomo zeroes in on an even narrower era, that of the early days of aviation with celebrity fliers like Charles Lindbergh. Take a look at the leather aviator caps with goggles which root us firmly in the period. What follows is the usual Armani exploration of insanely luxurious materials (leather, velvet, and faux-fur), finishes (check out the storage pockets on the sides of boots!), and cuts (please notice the amazing wide trousers cut higher at the hem to give them the appearance of culottes!) to create another gorgeous Emporio Armani collection for the archives. While I marvel over every detail, it is the color scheme that elevates this entire story for me: I love how the neutrals give way to a section of truly beautiful russets, which melt into lavenders (much like Fendi's collection on the same day, seen here), and finally, like a sunset, into the inky black of night for evening casual formalwear (did Armani invent the casual formalwear idea?)...there's a tuxedo jacket with a beret that is akin to something Lindbergh might have worn to a cocktail party in Paris to celebrate his Trans-Atlantic Flight.

https://www.armani.com/