Giorgio Armani on 50 Years of His Era-Defining Label, the Key to Longevity, and What Comes Next

“Timeless” is one of those terms so often used to describe elegant clothing that it has practically lost all meaning—it’s a fashion cliché right up there with “effortless” and “modern.” That is, unless you’re talking about Giorgio Armani, for whom all those words sound exactly right.

Does anyone have a stronger claim of ownership to the concept of timelessness than the Italian legend, who turned 90 last July and is now celebrating the 50th anniversary of his business? Like all successful designers, he will tell you that he always prefers to look forward, not back; but his commitment to a singular aesthetic throughout his career has resulted in designs that seemed breathtakingly new when they were introduced in the 1970s and ’80s—when he stripped the stiff linings from suit jackets and softened the shoulders—and still feel relevant and wearable today. The designer himself still looks very much like the same handsomely tanned man who is often called “the king” of Italian fashion.

“For me, consistency does not mean rigidity,” says Armani, who, at the start of a year that is likely to be filled with opportunities for reflection, is experiencing emotions that he describes as both personal and profound. This is probably to be expected for someone who is being asked, for this feature, to recall key moments from his shows, which now number in the hundreds. They encompass his collections for Giorgio Armani; Emporio Armani; and his couture label, Armani Privé—not to mention the many Hollywood awards nights where the red carpet has become an extension of his runway. He remembers virtually every ensemble quite clearly. “I am extremely demanding, first and foremost with myself,” he says. “So, looking back, I might have done some things differently today, but I find myself surprised and sometimes even moved by the results of each collection.”

Last October, after decades of parrying questions about the future of his brand—how long he intended to remain at its helm, and if he would ever give up his fiercely guarded independence—Armani made headlines when he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he planned to retire within the next two to three years. But, in typical fashion, while opening a massive new flagship in New York just days later, he backtracked and told The Wall Street Journal that he had only been joking. Now he says, and not for the first time, that he owes his longevity both in business and in life to his determination to keep working every single day (“even when I’m on holiday”), combined with a balanced diet and daily exercise, a recipe that he plans to follow indefinitely. And why shouldn’t he, when Armani, who has insisted all along that “elegance is not about being noticed, it is about being remembered,” is once again having a moment?

Asked how he might update his most famous dictum, he explains that there is no need. “It resonates even more today than when I first expressed it,” he says. “Timelessness is one of the greatest achievements in fashion, but also one of the hardest. In my view, this quality can be achieved only by subtracting, purifying, and focusing on the value of the garment, not on the stories it must tell, because the stories are ultimately told by the people who wear the clothes.”

Armani joins a rarefied club of designers who have reached the half-century mark, which today includes Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons (founded in 1973) and Yohji Yamamoto (1972) in Japan; Paul Smith (1970) in England; and Norma Kamali (whose first store opened in 1967) and Ralph Lauren (1967) in America. He sees several characteristics that they all have in common: “independence of thought, consistency, the radical choice to work on a singular aesthetic, and the ability not to be swayed by fleeting trends. What I believe has helped me endure as a brand over these years is precisely my commitment to a well-defined style that has evolved over time.”

Armani didn’t start his own business until he was 41—he first worked for La Rinascente department store in Milan and the designer Nino Cerruti, among others—which gave him the benefit of experience and maturity. It was as if he had appeared on the scene a fully formed designer. He and his partner, Sergio Galeotti, founded their company in 1975, starting with men’s suits in gently draped luxury fabrics. These became so popular so quickly that the designer introduced womenswear soon after. “Discovering a man like Armani is impossible, because he discovered himself,” Cerruti told Time magazine in 1982. “Men like Armani are so rare that when one emerges even the blind are aware of it.”

Even so, it couldn’t have occurred to Armani or Galeotti, who died of AIDS only a decade later, that they were creating an empire that would go on to have sales of $2.6 billion in 2023. “The early years were entirely dedicated to building the brand,” recalls Armani. “At the time, we were too busy in the fashion trenches to think about how long it would last or what milestones we might achieve.” Of Galeotti, the dashing young draftsman he met while on a seaside holiday in 1966, who pushed Armani to go out on his own, he says, “I cannot and do not want to forget him.”

Armani became a household name in America in the 1980s, following the release of American Gigolo, for which he had outfitted Richard Gere’s character, Julian Kay. His subtly androgynous suits—the yuppies’ uniform for power dressing—became emblematic not only of the new look of Hollywood royalty but also of the shifting dynamics of gender roles in the workplace. Armani’s stripped-down “greige” fashion aesthetic effectively served as a gender equalizer, as his menswear became softer and his womenswear tougher. If there is one way in which his designs have noticeably evolved over five decades, it is that Armani sees less reason to blur boundaries today. “Women in the workplace no longer have to dress like men to be taken seriously,” he says. “A greater femininity in clothing is no longer at odds with authority. Of course, we are still far from absolute equality, but in my work this evolution has resolved itself perfectly.”

Still, Armani says he didn’t feel he had created something truly significant until the 1990s, once he had taken on responsibility for the business—he is also the chief executive of his company—and introduced new labels and products that would eventually include homeware, hotels, and chocolates. Those who have worked with Armani the longest attest that he can be a taskmaster with a notorious eye for detail, but they also point to his discipline and drive. “I have always been struck by his belief in simplification—or subtraction, as he calls it,” says his niece Roberta Armani, the global head of entertainment industry relations, who 25 years ago left behind a career as an actor to join her uncle’s company. “But this is not just a design philosophy; it’s a philosophy for life, too.”

This year is also significant for Armani because it marks the 20th anniversary of Armani Privé and the 10th anniversary of Armani/Silos, the exhibition and educational space he opened in Milan, on the same strip of via Bergognone where his offices and the theater he designed with Tadao Ando are located. It’s been a dream of his, he says, to exhibit his couture there so that people can appreciate his other side. Armani is by nature pragmatic and restrained, and believes it is the responsibility of Italian designers to produce fashion that is more commercial than creative. “Our work is meant to truly clothe people, not to produce concepts, ideas, or art,” he says. But the couture, which is shown in Paris, “adopts a more precious, lighter, even playful language.” It’s not exactly wild and crazy, but it does allow Armani a break from the fundamental codes by which he otherwise strictly lives, in which each collection must evolve directly from the last one—never a disavowal, never a regret. “I don’t like resting on my laurels or boasting,” he says. “What comes next is always more interesting to me than what I’ve already done.”

Roberta Armani says her uncle is actually very funny. “The image of him as a super-serious creative is only part of the story,” she says. “There is a touch of eccentricity running through him and his work.” Take his aforementioned diet and exercise routine. “I do muscle-strengthening exercises, walk every day, and get massages every evening,” he says. “My diet is very healthy, almost entirely vegetarian, and I don’t drink alcohol. I love pasta, especially spaghetti all’olio, and risottos, too—both alla Milanese and alla Parmigiana. Although I’m not particularly fond of them, I eat plenty of vegetables, and once a week I treat myself to a grilled sole or chicken breast. My only indulgence is sweets—dark chocolate, hazelnut ice cream in summer, and tiramisu or panettone during the holidays.”

Nothing becomes easier with age, Armani notes, but the creative process is smoother, and that gives him more time to reflect on both the past and the future. He has always been particularly drawn to the aesthetic of the decade of his birth, the 1930s, an era of modernity and taboo breaking in fashion, art, and furniture, but also a period of great global conflicts that significantly shaped his worldview. His childhood in Piacenza, to the southeast of Milan, was scarred by the atrocities he witnessed during World War II, and as a boy he was severely burned in an explosion after some friends discovered and began playing with gunpowder they had found in empty barracks. When Armani senses parallels between that time and the uncertainty of the current moment, he becomes uncharacteristically pessimistic.

“I find the world today surprising at times, frightening at others,” he says. “It is open, full of discoveries, and equipped with tools that connect us, broaden our perspectives, expand our contacts, and increase our knowledge. Yet, despite all this progress, it still seems governed by harsh logics of exploitation and violence. There are still too many wars and too much poverty for us to speak of true progress. Having experienced war firsthand, I find this scenario profoundly alarming. I would like there to be more respect. This is a utopia perhaps, but one we should all strive to make real.”

In a way, that is what Armani has been doing for most of his career: creating his own vision of utopia through fashion. Having defied some critics who once sniped that his collections were too repetitive, and others who called for him to adapt to the trends of the moment, he could surely say he’s had the last laugh by now—not that he ever would.

Does he ever feel like he’s got nothing left to prove?

“If that thought had ever occurred to me, I would have stopped working immediately,” says Armani. “Yet here I am.”

Hair by Cyndia Harvey at Art Partner; makeup by Hiromi Ueda for Armani Beauty at Art + Commerce; manicure by Lauren Michelle Pires for CND. Set design by Andrew Tomlinson at Streeters.

Models: Lou Hughes, Yar Aguer, Anna Robinson at NEXT Management London; Charlotte Boggia at Select Model Management London; Ella Dalton, Laura Savy at Society Management; Casting by Ashley Brokaw Casting; Produced by Partner Films; Producers: Lola Sharrock, Cindy Parthonnaud; Photo Assistants: Albi Gualtieri, Thomas Lombard, Sapphire Stewart; Digital Technician: Bella Sporle; Retoucher: Aly studio; Fashion Assistant: Salomé Rouquet; Production Assistants: Ash Renshaw, Freddie Nickerson; Hair Assistants: Leanne Millar, Karen Bradshaw, Aminata Kamara; Makeup Assistants: Pia Gartner, Rina Inata; Manicure Assistant: Megan Cummings; Set Assistants: Brad Barrett, Charlie Fowle.

Giorgio Armani Collage: Top row, from left: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media via Getty Images; Stefan Hesse/Picture Alliance via Getty Images; John Minihan/ANL/Shutterstock. Second row, from left: Francois Goudier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images; Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images; Isabel Snyder, Courtesy of Giorgio Armani. Third row, from left: RiskyWalls/Alamy Stock Photo; Courtesy of Giorgio Armani; Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images; Courtesy of Giorgio Armani; Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images. Bottom row, from left: Aldo Fallai, Courtesy of Giorgio Armani; Marc Piasecki/WireImage; Courtesy of Giorgio Armani.