Giorgio Armani: Fashion, Film & the Revolution of Tailoring

0:00Armani didn't just change the way that the Italians regarded tailoring. I would say that he changed the entire menswear landscape globally. It took him a long time. I think he was 40 when he started. It wasn't his 40s. Yeah. It was absolutely revolutionary what he did with American Giclo. Wolf of Wall Street, The Dark Knight, Shaft. I mean, 400 films or something. Oh, I didn't know that. Extraordinary. His first collection was menswear. and then he did women's wear because his sister and her friends kept on wearing menswear. Armani would say there are times when I'm in fashion and there are times when I'm out of fashion, but I'm always Armani.

0:41Hello and welcome to The Luxury Dispatch, the podcast that reveals the refined and the rare, the people, items and stories that make up the luxury industry. I'm Tom Chamberlain and today we turn our attention to one of the most influential figures in fashion history, Giorgio Armani. From his revolutionary approach to tailoring to his enduring impact on how the world perceives luxury clothing, Armani has defined elegance, restraint, and power in style. From the catwalk to the silver screen, from classic tailoring to modern interpretation, we'll uncover the story of Armani like never before. We shall also be exploring how he became Hollywood's first fashion designer.

1:19Joining me to navigate his life and legacy are two exceptional guests, Peter Howarth, a leading expert on Armani, who will guide us through the evolution of his designs and his remarkable influence on luxury menswear and womenswear alike, and Hanni Farsi, film producer and philanthropist, who will also explore Armani's indelible mark on film and television, where the brand has become synonymous with on-screen sophistication and cinematic style. Hello, Peter, and hello, Hanni. Hello. Big topic, small time to some extent, so I apologize, because I know that this is a topic that is close to your heart, and you knew George L.

1:55Money. I did. I did. I knew him very well for about 30-something years. I was the editor of Arena magazine and Esquire magazine in the late last century, early this century, and through that spent a lot of time traveling with him and then subsequently on various kind of journalistic gigs, as it were. So I knew him very well. And he wasn't an easy man to get to know. But I found him always just a fascinating study, really. And his story is incredible. I mean, it goes right back to the Second World War when he grew up in Italy. So this is the thing that's really important about Armani. Fashion designers are now a thing.

2:42We know their names, they're interviewed, they're in magazines. But you've got to think back to a time when fashion designers were not ubiquitous in popular culture. And so you obviously have people like Coco Chanel, you know, there are a few. But it wasn't really part of popular culture. So he was born in a town near Milan called Piacenza in 1934. He had an elder brother, a younger sister. His father was a civil servant. And his mother was a housewife. But, you know, it's 1934. Yeah, interesting time for Italy. There are things happening. And, you know, this is the thing. It's like, you know, the designers now, they come out of St.

3:30Martin's and they're, you know, very concerned with their social media profiles and this, that. You know, Armani's origin story is completely different. I remember talking to him once about his childhood and he was explaining that, you know, his father ended up in prison because he was, you know, part of the fascist movement as everybody was in Italy at that time. and so his mother was looking after them and she used to go out to relatives in the countryside, friends and relatives, to kind of forage and get food and supplies during the war and she would smuggle them back past the German patrols by pretending she was pregnant and stuffing them up her dress.

4:09And he told this extraordinary story about how he and his friends, I think he was six, seven, eight, were playing one day with an unexploded shell bomb Wow. And the thing went off, and it killed his friend that was next to him, and it burnt him from head to toe. He was blind for six weeks in hospital, being soothed in a vat of alcohol. And just, you know, that sort of experience is extraordinary. I mean, when he was telling me that story, he rolled up his trouser leg, and he said, you see this? And there was a little burn mark. He said, you know, it's skin memory. It was where his buckle from his sandal was burnt into his leg.

4:50And, you know, people always say about Armani that he was a workaholic. And I know from being on trips with him, first in in the morning, last out at night, totally focused, totally dedicated. And at a certain point, you kind of ask yourself, where does that come from? And, you know, if you want an answer, you can look back at that kind of experience. I don't want to be pseudo-psychological about it, but, you know, there is a sense in which, you know, you know poverty, you know privation, you know danger, you know, life-threatening things. And one way of dealing with that is to work your way out of it.

5:25And I think that's what he did his entire life. Yeah, amazing. And the context of Italy he grew up in is really important. And of course, Italy had Il Boom and this sort of unexpected financial revival. So Italy at the time of Il Boom, you know, was dressed as something that was something that Armani would have grown up with understanding and getting a sort of sense of Italy? Or do you think Italy was still trying to find its way? I think it took a few years. I think the war ended, the economic mercury referring to took a few years for it to take place. And he grew up at a time that there was long lines for bread and for food.

6:06Italy was destroyed as well. But his mother, from what I understand, really instilled in him the idea of always looking your best, always being neat. and she evoked in him the sense that it reflects an inner dignity, basically. But what influenced him was the cinema. He was in love with film. So the cinemas in Picanza were showing films from the 1930s, 40s, and, well, late 30s and 40s at that time. So he was influenced by looking at the sort of elegance of Cary Grant suits, of the gowns, of... He actually liked American westerns, first of all. Really? Is that right? And then kind of moved into the Hollywood silver screen and then into the neorealists.

6:49Exactly. But they were gods. You know, they were gods of the silver screen. Yeah. And very different to what he was growing up with. And it's interesting because you have that sort of Hollywood glamour, right? Complete refinement. And at the same time, Italy was beginning to produce the Italian neorealism in which normal people, there was no studios. It was filmed on the streets. Vittorio De Sica's sort of films were... but it also showed dignity in what they were doing. So he was influenced by both of them. There's an interview in which he said his biggest influence on what he later created was Hitchcock's Notorious, which is a standard.

7:22Oh, is that right? It's a very, very elegant film. See, I was going to ask whether, do you think he was more aligned with, you know, De Sica, Pasolini, and all the kind of the Italian filmmakers that were coming out at the time, or do you think, as you say, he was initially loved his Westerns? And obviously Hollywood is still very much in charge in terms of the cultural output at that time. So what do you think he aligned himself with? Or perhaps both? No, both. Definitely both. I mean, that's, I mean, you know, I hadn't actually thought about it until this very moment. But one of the things that is so interesting about Armani is that although, you know, for many people, it's a kind of byword for Italian style, it's actually a global style.

8:01Because in a sense, it's an amalgamation of a fantasy of elegance that's forged. I mean, you know, interestingly, you're talking about Italian culture. And of course, Italy is the land of bella figura. So, you know, and the passeggiata, this idea that on a Sunday, you go and you walk down the main street in your finest clothes to say hello to your friends. Go to church. And you show that you're doing okay. You know, you show it as an outward manifestation. And I think it's Norman Lewis's Naples 44 book where he talks about, you know, Naples being completely devastated, but the, you know, impecunious aristocrats in their, you know, dilapidated palazzos still dressing up in their finest tailoring to go out.

8:48And you have to remember that, you know, a brand like Brioni, you know, elegant, extraordinary tailoring, I think started in 44 or 45, I mean, right at the end of the war. I mean, at a time when people couldn't, I think I read Jay McInerney or somebody on Brioni at some point saying, you know, people couldn't afford food. but they still go and buy cloth for their suits. So I think deeply, I mean, you mentioned quite rightly his mother who, you know, he, you know, absolutely kind of forged this idea. She had this saying that was, you know, it was something like, you know, to create true beauty, you know, only do so much but no more.

9:26It was this sort of less is more, less is better. Considering Armani, that's really interesting. Yeah. I mean, the other thing I was going to suggest, Do you think perhaps the disfigurement as a child gave him an obsession of looking amazing? Wow. Who knows? I mean, I know that he was fascinated by anatomy. He was always, you know, as a kid, he used to make little dolls out of mud and stuff. And he went to medical school. Right. Oh, is that right? Yeah, he went to the University of Milan. And he dropped, do you say he dropped out? He did drop out. Yes. Interestingly, the thing that inspired him to become a doctor was A.J.

10:07Cronin's The Citadel, which if I'm right, is set in Wales. It's a rural doctor in Wales. And he read this as a young boy and thought, that's what I want to do. You know, I want to go into the community and be this kind of heroic, you know, kind of life-saving figure. but he dropped out his studies I think were interrupted by national service which he did but then after national service I don't think he went back to university and he says he had a problem with studying he just didn't apply himself it wasn't him and so he he was trying to work out what to do and again at a time when fashion designer was not a job he went to the department store, big department store, still there in Milan, the premier department school, which is called La Rinocente, I think.

11:00And he had this notion that he might be a photographer. And he'd taken some pictures of his sister, who actually subsequently went on to become an actress. And he turned up to see the woman who was head of marketing or something and said, here are my pictures, whatever. And she kind of looked at them and said, well, they're all very good. But, you know, you're kind of clearly interesting, you know, how about coming and working here? And that's how he became a window dresser. And funnily enough, you know, he did say to me once that you know he he basically had has always had a great deal of success with women you know that he was very you know i suspect he probably flirted with her yeah he said you know we spent a lot of time going out and having coffee so he was charming absolutely charming um but that was his his entree was to become a window dresser at a department store yeah where as the kind of young gun on the block, as it were.

11:52He then started to work with the buyers, trying to get them to buy interesting clothes to sell to men in Milan. And that's how he then came to the notice of Nino Chirruti, who was a fashion designer, who kind of hilariously had a label called Hitman. Okay. And Armani went to work for him and sort of learned his trade in the studio of Nino Chirruti. So he had a sort of circuitous route. And like a lot of teenagers, I suspect, didn't really know what he was going to do once the doctor dream vanished and found his way into this kind of world. And when he started, Armani, did he have a sort of an objective in mind?

12:35Well, it took him a long time. I think he was 40 when he started. It was in his 40s, yeah. Oh, gosh, okay. So there's a big kind of gap. He was. 75 is when he started. So he did the... Okay, so right. American Jogaloo is 1980. Yeah. He started, I mean, Giorgio Armani in 75. He went to Biella to join Cerruti in the early 60s and really worked in the factories, the fabrics, the construction, really learned the craft, basically. Yeah, and actually Cerruti... Because Biella, obviously, is the capital, for those who don't know, is basically the capital of fabrics in Italy. The water is a very particular type that's perfect, and every single great fabric maker in Italy is in Biella.

13:13It's like tweed. Sure, yeah, yeah. It's like what we say about tweed. But the Shruti, he acknowledged that Nino Shruti really kind of set him on his aesthetic path. Because it was while he was working for Shruti that Shruti said to him, look, I want you to explore this idea of deconstructing tailoring. Because if you think about it at that point, 60s, early 70s, tailoring had essentially been made in the same way for generations. You know, your suit was what your father had worn, made in the same way as your father's suit. Yeah, probably went the same tailor, yeah. So interlining, shoulder pads, type of cloth, weight of cloth, whatever.

13:57And at that point, there were new fabrics coming along that were lighter weight and strong. Yeah, yeah. And there were new manufacturing techniques. And Armani took this to heart. And while he was at Sheruti, started to explore this idea of taking the pads and the padding and the interlining and taking it out. could you still create something that had some structure but felt very comfortable? Very nice example here on the blanket, obviously. And when he started his own label, that became his holy grail. And he talked throughout his entire career of the deconstructed jacket as being the thing that he returned to every season, playing with, trying to make it lighter, trying to make it comfortable.

14:39He said, you know, I want a jacket to feel like you're wearing a cardigan. Oddly enough, it feels like every subsequent Italian designer it feels like they've also wanted to try and take on that challenge too as if to kind of, you know do their own version of that maybe it's difficult to name names because they might vehemently deny that this is the case especially in Italy we talk about The 2026 FIFA World Cup meal at McDonald's is underway with one of nine legendary cups In the lineup, Christian Pulisic, David Beckham, Laminio Mal, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Son Hyung-min, Alphonso Davies, Santi Jimenez.

15:24And between the posts, it's Grimace. Get one of nine collectible cups with a FIFA World Cup meal. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. While supplies last, all rights reserved. 2026 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 2026. On Sundays, people going out, because I've always said that Italians wear ties in the way that they don't wear ties. It's exactly the same. there's no difference whereas in Britain if you put on a tie there's like an intent behind it there's a messaging behind that it's the look as though you don't care you're not trying hard no but I mean you're completely right but it's not just Italians I mean there are different traditions in Italy the Neapolitan tradition is slightly more structured but it's a geography thing isn't it because as you go up because there is Roman tailoring there's Florentine tailoring there's Milanese tailoring there's Neapolitan Like, it's all different and quite territorial.

16:14But I would argue that Armani didn't just change the way that the Italians regarded tailoring. I would say that he changed the entire menswear landscape globally. I think, yes, because as you were saying, Hanni, you know, he started it in the mid-70s. I mean, it didn't take him long to make a huge impact, clearly, because along came American Gigolo in 1980. I mean, do you remember when you first saw American Gigolo? Yeah, I saw it when it came out. I, it was, listen, I was an only child. So when I came to London or Paris, I just saw everything I was allowed to see. And Paris was different to London.

16:54I was allowed, they had a different restriction. So whereas in the UK, this was X-rated in the old rating system. There it was, if you are above 13 years old, you can watch it. So of course I did. And I was captivated by it completely. I mean, from Blondie singing Call Me to the scene of which he's putting the clothes on. And that just was an explosion in my mind. Do you remember that people always talk about that scene? Because essentially what he's doing is he's acting like a stylist. He's pulling out the shirt and the ties and putting them on the bed and matching them up. Rather like he would have seen, I mean, sorry, he, Richard Gere, would have seen Armani put some stuff together.

17:36Well, there's two things I have to say about American Gigolo that many people don't know. One is that John Travolta was originally cast in the role just off the back of Grease and Saturday Night Fever, probably. It would have been Grease, it would have been 78, so he was cast in that and he turned it down. He turned it down. He turned it down. He had scheduling, but I think he came to Milan for a fitting. I think Armani did 40 suits or something with Travolta in mind or whatever. He did the Urban Cowboy instead. But the other thing that's really interesting is, if you watch that scene again, I think it's Smokey Robinson that's playing in the soundtrack while he's doing his styling.

18:12But he's snorting cocaine throughout the whole thing. Oh, Richard Gere. Richard Gere. He's snorting cocaine on screen while he's putting his outfits together. I didn't get that when I was 13. No, I'm just saying. People forget that, and I just think it's fascinating. It's 1980. So, the context of films, you know, film styling, because I know that you are a great fan of The Thin Man and films that sort of go back to the very early years of cinema, full stop. The styling back then was incredibly tailored. Like it was super sartorial. If you look at Cary Grant, if you look at Bogart, or if you look at...

18:54William Powell. They were impeccably dressed. William Powell was amazing. William Powell was amazing. The contrast between what was then going on in the 80s and Armani managing to get a foot into Hollywood. Let's talk a little bit about that, dissect that a bit. Because you had an expression of style that was incredibly old-fashioned, elegant, sophisticated, but at the same time quite alienating. And then suddenly in the 80s, you had the style that people thought, I could do that. You're absolutely right. It was, first of all, the previous styles, you'll have to go to Savile Row and you have to know what you're doing to be able to achieve the result, right?

19:37It's not necessarily easy to get. But what Armani did was easy, effortless. It was clothes that people wanted to wear. It was not formal, but it was exceptionally elegant. And it caught on very quickly. It was absolutely revolutionary what he did with American Gigolo. Yeah, and I think it's very important also to say that in 1975, when he kind of launched, I think his first show was in 76, it was a men's show. It's very unusual for a fashion designer who is known for, I mean, Armani is one of the few designers who's equally known for men's and women's wear. It's very unusual for a fashion designer to launch.

20:15The others being, who do we think, Ralph Lauren? Yeah, Ralph Lauren. Dolce & Gabbana. Yeah. And at some point, I would say Versace as well during his lifetime. Yeah. But yeah, most of them, Valentino, would really be known just as a woman. Yeah, I mean, Yves Saint Laurent and Dior, many women, Chanel, of course, Balenciaga. Yeah, but Saint Laurent and Dior do do men's, but what they're known for. And most, I guess most global fashion houses are probably known for their women's wear first, but his first collection was men's wear. And then he did women's wear because his sister and her friends kept on wearing men's wear.

20:52And he thought, oh, you know, I can do a different sort of women's look. still using the deconstructed tailoring things, softer jackets and trouser suits. And, you know, so it's that kind of bourgeois. I mean, that's also very interesting because by the time you get to the 70s and 80s. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it.

21:29Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18+. Italy's in a bit of a mess, I think, economically and politically. And I remember talking to him about the imagery that he created around that time, which is still very famous, those black and white pictures by Aldo Falai, which had, you know, guys reading La Stampa in the square by the Duomo. But he said that he and this photographer, Aldo Fellay, very consciously wanted to project an image of a successful, and he used the word bourgeois, Italy. It was a branding statement.

22:10He wanted to show the world that they weren't a political and economic basket case. And I think that's fascinating in a way because there's a sort of class element to that. which goes back to Bella Figura and walking down the Passaggiatta and showing your best foot. How do you show the world your best foot forward as Italy? You show a kind of, it's a kind of industrial northern Italian, very different from Versace, which is all Roman, you know. But when you're talking about, you know, 1980, he only, he'd started in 75. He only went to America. Clothes only launched in 79. So how did he get his foot in the door?

22:50Well, he was asked to do the film by Paul Schrader. I have no idea how Paul Schrader found him, but he was asked to do the film and he thought, I love cinema. This will be fun. He had absolutely no idea that it would be the kind of step change from a marketing point of view. 1982, he's in the cover of Time magazine. The first designer since Dior, I think since Christian Dior, to be on the cover of the magazine. I mean, extraordinary. in that short, not even 10 years old as a brand. And so he did American Gigolo and he was completely gobsmacked by the impact that it had. And that's really where fashion's infatuation with the cinema and by extension, the red carpet and all the rest of that we've come to know started.

23:37So when I've kind of said he's Hollywood's first fashion designer, that's not hyperbole, that's probably right. No, there were some people like Givenchy and people like that who did Audrey Hepburn. Javon, she would be the one. But then again, these are couture pieces. These are, you know, not necessarily that easy to do, not affordable. You couldn't find them in a store. Whereas this was a collection. This was something you can actually buy. And think about that scene where he's laying the things out on the bed. He's doing it himself. Yeah, yeah. Right? So there is a subliminal message which is you can go and buy this stuff and you can do it yourself.

24:13And in the 80s, very colourful and, you know, bombastic decade. Technology was everything. You know, people were going, you know, you could see certainly with synthetic materials and stuff, they were producing some pretty wacky outfits and stuff. People with, you know, extraordinary hair and, you know, the music scene was, you know, Flight of, what was it? Seagulls. Seagulls. Seagulls. Seagulls. The Neuromantics. Yeah, exactly. The Neuromantics. very, very different. It's antithetical to what Armani was doing. So did he come too late? Did he come at the right time? What was the... Okay, so yes and no.

24:55You're speaking as an Englishman. You know, early 80s Englishman, you're thinking about the Blitz Club and the New Romantics and Adamant and all that kind of stuff. Human League. Human League. Yeah. Part of that as well was an infatuation with old school Hollywood glamour. You know, if you think about the Ultravox video for Vienna or whatever, you know, people are dressed up in tuxedos So Armani could sort of fit into that. But the parallel fashion story of the 80s is Wall Street. It's suits. It's greed is good. It's, you know, it's the suit, shirt and tie. It's the apotheosis of the double-breasted suit, you know.

25:32And that's what Armani was taken up by professional men and women. It was a revolution in women's wear because women for the first time had a wardrobe that could compete sartorially in the workplace with the men they worked with. They didn't have to be feminine and dress as women. They could be powerful. And Armani provided that wardrobe very, very significantly. So in a way, he's just as much part of that. I mean, if you talk to somebody, what's a typical 80s outfit? These days, you know, most people aren't going to talk about the Neuromantics. They will talk about Michael Douglas. Yeah, and Eric Clapton coming in the record looking like the way he did.

26:16Exactly. You know, people were adopting that a lot. It changed. I mean, it's a 10-year period. So the part you're referring to is the absolute early 80s. Yeah. Wall Street was 88, I think. Before that, The Untouchables was 87. Yeah. Very different. Very different. In, you know, America Jiggler and Untouchables, from a styling point of view, from a silhouette point of view, very different. Very different. Well, different. I mean, of course, it was meeting the needs of the 20s. Fine, yeah. But also, don't forget, he was also involved in Miami Vice. Yes. Yes. So people just think of Versace, but also Armani provided a lot of the suits.

26:52And whereas Versace was doing the pastel colors, Armani stuck to his usual palette, and the suits, they were being used there at all. And Miami Vice was in the houses of everyone across the globe. So not everybody saw American Gigolo, for instance. But everyone watched Miami Vice. That's true. And that would have started in early 80s. I think 83 or 84 was the first season. So that would be way before The Untouchables. So he cemented his position between the release of American Gigolo and The Untouchables with Miami Vice. Because it kind of feels like, therefore, that Armani soon enough became almost a shorthand for men's style.