Yesterday evening (17 October 2024) Giorgio Armani presented his S/S 2025 collection in New York for the first time since Armani Privé was brought to the city just over ten years ago. Under usual proceedings, Giorgio Armani’s ready-to-wear womenswear rounds out Milan Fashion Week each season. The show is an intimate affair, held in the softly lit theatre space at the brand’s Via Borgonuovo HQ.
A/W 2024 was built on a theme of ‘renewal’. Gina di Bernardo, the face of many campaigns Armani created with Aldo Fallai during the 1980s, opened runway proceedings, whilst floral motifs spoke of new beginnings.
Giorgio Armani returns to New York for S/S 2025
But 2024 is an unusual year for Mr. Armani. As well as turning 90, he marks the 50th anniversary of his eponymous brand. The decision to show in New York aligns with the milestone opening of a 9,000-square-metre flagship store on Madison Avenue, which draws from the ‘Manhattan modern’ design era. It is a new home for the Giorgio Armani and Armani/Casa boutiques, plus Armani/Ristorante and Giorgio Armani Residences.
A capsule collection, called ‘New York Exclusive’, has been created to mark this occasion, and will be sold there and at Bergdorf Goodman. It references the 1980s power suiting synonymous with Giorgio Armani’s American success story. (The brand rose to prominence when Paul Schrader commissioned Mr. Armani to dress Richard Gere for his 1980 neo-noir American Gigolo, ushering in a new, decade-defining style.)
Cinema, and Hollywood, are pervasive sources of inspiration for Mr. Armani. ‘For me, New York has always been linked to the many films that have deeply shaped my imagination,’ he said yesterday in a statement. ‘Thinking of the city in the 1930s and 1940s never ceases to inspire me and I evoke that mood in the new Giorgio Armani women's collection.’ In a continuation of last season’s pensive themes, S/S 2025 is titled ‘In Viaggo’, translating to ‘on a journey’. The Park Avenue Armory was the chosen venue for last night’s show, its great hall decked out to resemble a train station, and filled with a curated guestlist of 650 celebrities, members of the press and private clients.
‘Travel’ punctuates the collection in many senses. Firstly, in its traversing several eras of Giorgio Armani codes. (However, the designer stressed that this is all about ‘remembering without nostalgia’.)
Also, in the dramatic accessories: film noir-esque hats tilted over the eyes; headscarves and sunglasses; and large knapsacks slung over shoulders as part of several menswear looks. A couple of porters carrying luggage accompanied the opening model and at one point a small curly-haired dog was transported down the runway, cradled in arms.
The movement and fluidity of fabric evoke a forward trajectory, too, whether cut into billowing jackets, lightweight leather trench coats, or silk pantsuits and above-the-knee bloomers, nodding to a contemporary boxer-short silhouette. A quintessentially Armani colour palette spanned from signature ‘greige’, to sand, muted moss green and the deepest midnight navy. Bronze, coral, blush pink and pale blue were saved for eveningwear.
The latter two shades are seen in the closing look; a subtly sheer embroidered semi-plunging gown, with intricate clusters of beading appearing as flowers in bloom. Mr. Armani has said that he plans to retire within the next two or three years. But if the mood of S/S 2025 is anything to go by, the maestro of Italian fashion still has much more up his sleeve.
