A Farewell to King Giorgio

Giorgio Armani has passed away, the undisputed king of Italian fashion and ambassador of a recognizable, refined and never excessive style. Much can be said about him, as a designer and as a man; we attempt to do so in these few lines, starting precisely from his own words: “I would like, with my story, to be an example, a stimulus, and to remind everyone that real work takes you far.” Certainly, he was a fortunate man: an immense career that began in the mid-1970s and brought him success, money, fame and an incredible life, but he was also a provincial child, shy and introverted; a serious medical student with the dream of surgery; and then a young adult who began to walk the path of creativity thanks to his first job as a window dresser at La Rinascente in Milan, and finally a man advanced in age who, taking stock of his existence, regrets the children he never had and what the golden life took away from him. The evolution of Giorgio the stylist, tailor, designer, entrepreneur, creative, intertwines silently with the more private Giorgio, bringing onto the runway the peculiarities of his being: determination, elegance and discretion, elements that have always characterized, from the beginning and until the very end, his fashion shows. He was born in Piacenza in July 1934, spending his childhood amid bombings, a harsh experience that taught him to develop a balance between strength and resilience. In 1964 his creative spark was noticed by the Italian designer Nino Cerruti, who chose him to collaborate with the Hitman brand, the first factory of elegant men’s ready-to-wear. Here his vision of the deconstructed suit and the use of a new shade defined as “greige” took shape, but we will speak of this in the next contribution…

Elisa D'Adamo
NP october 2025