Giorgio Armani is watching. One of his piercing blue eyes peering out from his fall invitation and the runway backdrop, his men's show opened with a short video clip of the master of Italian fashion approaching a peephole backstage to check the audience's reaction. to her fashion show.
On Monday, he watched through a monitor and would have witnessed many dusty footprints and scuff marks on his black lacquered catwalk, and an attentive audience largely grateful for his energetic show, which exalted his cardigan-style tailoring, his agile mixes from classic menswear fabrics such as tweed, herringbone and flannel and, surprisingly, leopard print velvet and an avalanche of looks from their Neve skiwear range.
For his stupendous Emporio Armani collection earlier this week, the designer revisited the bold-shouldered looks of the '80s. For his signature collection, he also took some cues from the era, when “American Gigolo” helped popularize his languid, unpadded jackets. , and often lapels, and its mushroom-shaped color palette.
Here were the 2024 versions of his loose, pajama-soft suit jackets, some almost to the tips of your fingers, and his baggy pajama pants, some with cuffs, some elastic at the ankle, and some cinched by tabs that floated around of the booties, the shoes. of the Milan season.
While the show lacked some oomph, the silhouettes and sophisticated fabric blends were unmistakably Armani, updated here and there with utilitarian details and mixed with performance and après-ski pieces from the Neve line.
“These are clothes that I could wear too, and this is a path that I have always followed,” Armani said backstage. “The proportions are larger, in line with the trend, and this allows for greater tranquility. It seems right to put the emphasis on this feeling of tranquility.”
He explained the excess of Neve pieces by arguing that sportswear is “part of our daily lives: it is no longer absurd to wear padded pants under a jacket.”
And he is determined that men's fashion does not have to be an “object of desire at all costs.”
“It has to be a nice suit, a nice jacket, a nice fabric and color, and the combination of these, nothing more, otherwise it becomes a meaningless carnival,” he explained. “This is a more difficult exercise.”
With ties appearing on many Milan catwalks this season, does the blue-eyed designer see a comeback? “I hope he comes back,” he reflected, noting that he believes ties look good on certain occasions.
- With contributions from Luisa Zargani
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