30 fashion designers you should know... #12

GIORGIO ARMANI

The cinema has always played an important role in the designer's life, not only as a springboard for his career, but also as a stylistic model and inspiration. As a child (born in 1934) the fashion icon, who grew up in humble circumstances in northern Italy, made regular trips to nearby Milan to see screen classics by Hitchcock and Visconti. There, for the first time, he encountered the world that was one day to become his home: Hollywood. Armani still is passionate about old films and his collections often reflect the glamour of the forties and fifties. What is today an unparalleled success story was, in reality, not even premotely planned. After abandoning his medical studies in 1957, Armani worked as a window dresser and buyer at the Milan department store La Rinascente. Later on he switched sides, from fashion buyer to fashion designer. Without any formal training in tailoring, he designed the men's line for the Italian clothing enterprise. In 1975 he founded the firm of Giorgio Armani S.p.A. Armani presented his first collection with a focus on elegant suits in muted colors, which perfectly suited the casually elegant mood of the time. In the eighties, he removed the stiff linings from suit jackets, gave them a loose fit and replaced the shirt and tie with a simple t-shirt. With his preference for neutral colors and clean lines, he cleared the way for other minimalist designers such as Calvin Klein and Jil Sander. His international breakthrough finally came in 1980 with his costumes for the film American Gigolo. Today, the designer is known as a living legend, as a master of non-colors and the inventor of casual elegance.

Giorgio Armani