Giorgio Armani’s tailoring tutorial

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jun 19, 2017

They often call Giorgio Armani the greatest tailor in Italy, and the Monday show of his signature menswear collection certainly felt like a tutorial in tailoring.

 
Armani’s suit silhouette has gone through many changes – beginning life in the 70s as the ultimate golden age of Hollywood power suit; before he ripped up all the rules and took out all stuffing in 1990s by inventing the soft de-constructed suit. Today, he was back in iconoclastic form. For spring, he unveiled a series of elegant interpretations, featuring his new longer three or four-button jacket, paired with a sculpted pants cut just above the anklebone. By tweaking his silhouette the whole effect was a half-decade younger than recent collections.
 
This came in the a rich series colors and fabrics; from silver silk check to faded grey linen. For sportier moments, Armani offered snug blousons with high funnel collars. And, the designer also introduced fine double-breasted topcoats in linen: in his non-color palette of putty, concrete and mud.

No wonder he called the collection: Made in Armani.
 
Entering the show, scores of  pop fans went into a screaming frenzy at the arrival of Liam Payne from the group One Direction and Italian singer-songwriter Eros Ramazzotti.
 
Though, like lots of Italian designers, Armani’s target market are not really rock stars but rather Internet and high-tech entrepreneurs, where the very informality of their office life has led to far more casual dress. There was barely a tie on this catwalk, there are very few in Silicon Valley either. Though the suits were so well cut they added the authority that today’s successful men seek.