September 29, 2025 |
There was a deep poignancy to the SS26 Giorgio Armani show, which closed Milan fashion week. We were seeing the very last designs that the Italian fashion legend created. Armani died on September 4, aged 91, and worked up to the end.
Alongside crafting his SS26 collection, he also curated a retrospective exhibition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his brand, choosing pieces from half a century of his work and displaying them next to renaissance masterpieces at the Pinacoteca di Brera museum.
Family, friends (Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Spike Lee and Lauren Hutton among them) and the fashion corps gathered to pay respect to one of fashion’s greats – all elegantly dressed in black tie.
The show encapsulated Armani’s distinctive style. The designer revolutionised wardrobes when he stripped the stuffiness from suiting, replacing it with an airy, easy elegance for men and women.
Models, (many had worked with him for years) processed slowly around the museum courtyard, often in his and hers pairs, their softly draped tailoring not matching, but complimenting each other. Soft neutrals gave way to steelier shades, inspired by the modernity of Milan and the cityscapes inhabited by Armani-clad professionals. Then the show took a more personal turn inspired by Armani’s happy place, the volcanic island of Panetellaria with its black sands and deep blue waters. Its light, earth and sea, inspired a series of long, lean dresses, which glimmered with crystals. Their weightless, elongated lines telegraphed a signature Armani sense of elegance and ease.
The show closed with one of his long-time favourite models walking alone around the courtyard catwalk, wearing a crystal gown in Armani’s favourite shade of blue. A portrait of the great man picked out in crystals glittered one last time.
After the show, the audience processed up to the exhibition where Mr Armani had chosen pieces from his earliest collections to his most recent and displayed them side by side. You couldn’t tell what was old and what was new, such was the timeless consistency of his work.
Photography courtesy of Giorgio Armani.
