During these supremely strange times, even the most stoic of properties have had to adapt. The Giorgio Armani show is always one of the more tranquil, graceful moments of the Milanese quota. Guests are reliably treated to a kind of methodical elegance that may offer different inspirations and details from season to season, but rarely strays from the Armanian fundamentals. However, the weekend’s A/W '21 show felt as though Mr A had strayed further from the mainland than usual.
“I am consistent but I don’t like to be predictable, nor to be considered rigid,” he tells Esquire. “My aesthetic has certainly evolved over the years while I explored new ideas and I believe that it has taken on more decisive and eccentric elements, like animal prints.”
Eccentricity is not a word we would usually associate with Armani – his is a world of supreme sleekness – and though the weekend’s show was abound with Nehru-collars, double-breasted tailoring and pleated trousers, there was leopard print, polka dots and silk dressing gowns, too. There was a romantic, occasionally gothic feel to the collection – the kind of thing Percy Shelley might have worn around the house.
“This is indeed a moment that calls for romance and kindness,” says Armani. "And as a response to the hard times we are going through I wanted to create something that was gracefully reassuring. So, I drew on my repertoire of deconstructed or knitted jackets, as well those crafted in velvet, bringing everything together in an eclectic way. I imagined a man in front of his wardrobe, dressing according to his instinct and the mood of the moment.”
The act of getting dressed is perhaps Armani’s biggest inspiration for this collection. I asked how he the thought the pandemic may have affected the way Armani men (and men in general) dress, both in terms of aesthetic and function. Armani clothing is renowned for being as comfortable as it is stylish (those deconstructed jackets don’t really feel like jackets at all), and so would comfort become yet more of a concern during the design process. Or, would the concern be for getting over this epoch of leisurewear and finding joy in dressing up? We are entering the roaring (twenty) twenties, after all.
“I actually believe that the restrictions we have been living under have reinforced our desire for elegance. People will continue to want clothes that make them look and feel good,” he says. “The key is to dress in a comfortable way that still has elegance and style. Stylish elegance is, in fact, where I think we are headed.”
I wondered, too, how the events of the past year have affected his creative process. He is astonishingly prolific for man in his mid-Eighties, and like it has for us all, perhaps the lockdowns, social distancing and general pause of life has made him adjust his process.
“The pandemic has not had a dramatic effect on my approach to design, though it has occasioned much reflection. Significantly, this has not led to a reconsideration of what I wish to achieve through my work, on the contrary, the pandemic has reinforced some of the views I held before it began. Such as the strong belief that in order to create something that resonates with my clients, I have to create a kind of beauty that is relevant to their lives. And this I do by constantly responding to reality – which is my primary source of inspiration, and by my commitment to evolving my viewpoint, because life is constant change, an endless flux. With these collections, I have intensified the search for elegance and timelessness.”
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