Giorgio Armani, fashion designer whose cool tones and ‘slouch’ tailoring defined the 1980s

Giorgio Armani in 1983: ‘men like Armani are so rare that, when one emerges, even the blind are aware of it’ - Vittoriano Rastelli

Giorgio Armani, the Italian designer who has died aged 91, dominated the fashion scene of the late 1970s and 1980s with a streamlined look that came to epitomise the “yuppie”.

The Armani look was classical in its simplicity. He favoured cool tones of black, white, cream, taupe and grey – “greige”, as one critic dubbed them – and adhered to the same reassuringly discreet principles throughout his long career.

He first made a splash in 1975 with his “unreconstructed” jacket, which dispensed with lining and shoulder pads. Its image of rumpled sexiness combined with workwear practicality was adopted by suave businessmen from Manhattan to Melbourne. “When I began to design, men all dressed in the same way… all impeccably equal, equally impeccable. The Mao syndrome,” he recalled. “You couldn’t tell them apart. They had no defects. But I liked defect.”

By comparison with the glittery grandiloquence of his compatriot and competitor Gianni Versace, Armani’s collections had a practicality that appealed to a hard-working – and increasingly prosperous – middle class. He satisfied the huge demand for his creations by establishing a pyramid of brands targeting different price levels, ranging downwards from his eponymous haute couture house to Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans and Armani Exchange.

The success of Giorgio Armani could be judged both from his near-unrivalled standing in the fashion world – he almost single-handedly established Milan as a serious rival to Paris as the world’s fashion capital – and by the volumes his business generated. By 2024 he was thought to be worth £10 billion. When a profitable industry sprang up in counterfeit Giorgio Armani products, the man who only wished “to make men and women look better” did not object. “Actually,” he once said, “I am very glad that people can buy Armani – even if it’s a fake. I like the fact that I’m so popular around the world.”

Armani: he only wanted ‘to make men and women look better’ - Vittoriano Rastelli

Giorgio Armani was born in Piacenza, a town 40 miles south-east of Milan, on July 11 1934. His father was the manager of a transport company, and although his grandfather was a wig maker, young Giorgio was not exposed to the world of fashion in childhood. His parents had what he described as “a simple elegance” and his mother made all her children’s clothes to such a high standard that “we were the envy of all our classmates”. The cinema was, he recalled, “the only entertainment when we were kids”, and many of his designs were influenced by the classic looks of Hollywood stars such as Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich.

After school he embarked on a medical degree at Milan University in order to please his parents, but did not return after National Service (during which he worked as a hospital orderly). Following a brief flirtation with photography, Armani joined Rinascente, a Milanese department store, as a window dresser. He rose swiftly through the ranks to become a fashion coordinator, displaying a keen eye for new designs which would appeal to the customers.

In 1961 he was hired by Nino Cerruti, one of Italy’s leading designers, to join Hitman, Cerruti’s new menswear operation. Cerruti later denied he had “discovered” his protégé. Armani, he said, “discovered himself… men like Armani are so rare that, when one emerges, even the blind are aware of it.”

Armani unvils his 2019 spring-summer collection - Luca Bruno

At Hitman Armani saw textiles being manufactured and learnt the importance of the factory in the process from drawing-board to shop floor. In 1970, however, he left Cerruti after being refused permission to design women’s clothes, and began work as an independent in partnership with his boyfriend Sergio Galleotti.

At first he freelanced for other manufacturers such as Ungaro, Zegna and Sicons, and he did not produce the first Armani-labelled collection until 1975. By then he had realised that he would have to do something different to get noticed.

Fashion was still clinging to the shapes, colours and hippy philosophy of the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Everything was sinking under the dead weight of ornaments,” Armani explained. “It was too consciously designed.” The Armani combination of relaxed elegance and weightless formality was greeted with ecstatic reviews. It was “the first sexy collection for men” (Esquire) and “an epiphany of choreographed rumple” (Time).

The collection was an immediate success and his “slouch look” was heavily plagiarised. Within a year his designs were being sold by Barney’s in New York and the response to his transference of the same principles to women’s clothing – after he had noticed that women were buying his menswear for themselves – was no less rapturous.

Armani and his autumn models in 1980 - WWD

In 1979 he introduced more traditional, wider-lapelled suits with the gorge (the widest part of the lapel) mid-breast instead of just below the shoulder. When his ventless, bloused jackets aroused some criticism in America for their restrictive “European” fit, a spokesman responded: “If someone has a problem with the shape of our jacket then he has to get his body in shape.”

In 1980 he opened Giorgio Armani USA, benefiting hugely from the exposure of the film American Gigolo (1980), in which Richard Gere’s modish lothario was clad exclusively in Armani. Described by The New York Times as “the world’s master tailor”, Armani continued to extend and subtly distinguish his territory within high fashion, for instance by showing entirely skirt- and dress-less womenswear collections.

While his rival Versace’s rhinestone-studded and attention-grabbing creations were adopted by Elton John, Mike Tyson and Elizabeth Hurley, Armani attracted a more cerebral, sober-suited clientele, including Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Kevin Spacey and Eric Clapton.

In 1982 he appeared on the cover of Time, an event, he said, which simply heightened his sense of burden. For all his success, Armani retained a sense of melancholy, a shyness that restrained him from wallowing in his critical and financial success and led him to prefer the company of family and close friends to the fashion beau monde.

Armani in St Tropez - James Andanson/Sygma

After the death of Galleotti from Aids in 1985, Armani became increasingly introspective and worried about the appropriate strategy to ensure the long-term survival of his brand. He rarely seemed to emerge from his studio or his homes near St Tropez and Forte dei Marmi, and on the volcanic island of Pantelleria.

A prodigious worker, he inspired his employees – whom he considered his family – by working 12-hour days and continued to find his own inspiration on the streets of Milan. In 1990, Martin Scorsese made a short film about Armani for the Venice Film Festival in which the designer explained how the city, which he had come to “at a very vulnerable time in my youth”, had an “unexpected beauty … a discreet elegance” which had shaped his aesthetic.

His personal style was in keeping with the simplicity and restraint he admired in his adopted city. “I don’t want what you might call a ‘designer wardrobe’,” he said in 1990. “I have blue jackets, blue pullovers and grey pants. In my mind it’s like a uniform … Why blue? Because I think it looks good on me.”

Armani at home in Forte dei Marmi, 1983 - Jaime Ardiles-Arce/Conde Nast via Getty Images

Throughout the 1990s Armani’s empire expanded beyond watches, shoes, fragrances, glasses and swimwear and into a furniture and homes collection. In 2000 the Guggenheim Museum in New York staged a retrospective of his designs. Although much of it was devoted to the casual, neutral look with which he had become synonymous, there was also a display of the sumptuous and glittery couture gowns for which he had latterly become known, dressing stars including Cate Blanchett for the catwalk.

An intensely private self-confessed loner, who enjoy​ed travelling and art galleries but was “distracted” by music and could only read books pertaining to his trade, Armani lived a life that was uncluttered to the point of minimalism. He did not believe in collecting art or artefacts because “you become used to them. I think that is a selfish thing”.

“Life,” he once said, “is a movie. And my clothes are the costumes.”

His partner in later years was Leo Dell’Orco.

Giorgio Armani, born July 11 1934, died September 4 2025​

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