50 Years of Armani with Jim Moore, GQ’s Creative Director at Large

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0:17This is The Run Through. I'm Nicole Phelps. Today, I'm joined by legendary menswear expert and GQ creative director-at-large, Jim Moore. Giorgio Armani turned 90 this year, and he's looking ahead to celebrating his 50th anniversary of his brand in 2025. This year, on October 17th, will be the first time that he's shown his main collection outside of Milan. I thought it'd be a great time to look back at how Armani changed the codes of not just menswear, but also womenswear over the past five decades. And there's no one better to do it with than Jim Moore, and you will soon find out why. Okay, let's get into it.

0:57Thank you, Jim, for coming. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you, Nicole. It's amazing being here. Everybody's got a fashion gateway drug. And for me, it was Unzipped, the 1995 movie about an Isaac Mizrahi show. I want to know, was American Gigolo yours? Famously, Armani did Richard Gere's wardrobe for that. And you were at GQ when the movie came out, right? Totally my gateway drug. A couple years before, I was an intern at GQ. I lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I saw a couple movies. One was Lipstick, and the other one was Mahogany. And they were fashion movies. Not that I could put myself into those characters, but it got me excited to maybe get out of the small town and move to New York.

1:44I had parents that were like, you know, go follow your dreams. So I ended up in New York. When I started my internship at GQ, it was right at the cusp of when Condé Nast purchased the magazine. They were owned by Esquire before. So I came on board as an intern and I just loved, you know, sitting on the floor arranging socks by color, packing trunks, whatever. And then when I was able to go on full time, which was later in 79, they were working on a cover for American Gigolo. And it's when the idea came up that, you know, this had to be this had to be on the cover. This was a big moment because up until then, fashion and film really didn't kind of go together, so to speak.

2:31But Armani's incredible impact on fashion and tailored clothing and Richard Gere's wasn't bad to look at and looked pretty good in a suit. That all kind of happened at once. So that March 80 cover would have been the first cover that my name was in the masthead of, although I didn't work on that shoot. It was January of 1980 that it came on full time. And that kind of landed on my desk with my name on the masthead a couple months later. And it was pretty thrilling. What was different about those suits that Richard Gere wore? What was distinctive? What felt different from the fashion that had been in the air previous to that moment?

3:21Well, I think if you thought of what was Armani's suit, what is Armani's suit today? It is obviously a aspirational piece of clothing that men look up to. In those days, it was the first time we really saw men looking sexy in a suit, you know, in a sexy, masculine way. I mean, Armani was very, you know, he bucked against the trend of everything being a little bit shoulder padded and heavy fabrics and pinstripe and all of that. And sure, he did his pinstripe suits, but there was a fluidity to his clothes and a sexiness and an ease. And he brought that into the world of menswear. and it was kind of on the coattails of a movement in the 70s that was happening in Milano, but also, you know, most of Europe.

4:10The Italian tailors especially were softening up a little bit with their fabrics. And, you know, the Italians have always been the kings of menswear and they've always had the best fabrics, but the fabrics were always a little bit, the linens were a little bit stiff and the gabardines were a little bit thick. And, you know, Armani is like, how can we kind of soften this up? How can we take the interfacing out? How can we like, you know, do a tie that's unlined? How can we take the shoulder pads out? How can we create something that's a little bit more fluid, still kind of drapes on the body, drapes closely to the body, but is much more moves with the man and has a little bit more of a sensuality.

4:47So the movie is a very sexy movie. It's about a man and a woman in a beautiful wardrobe of Armani suits that he lays on this incredible bed and starts to put together. So I would say, you know, at least for that moment in the film, the suit is the star of the film. Richard Gere at his most devastatingly good looking. Absolutely. Absolutely. So thinking back to that moment, was Armani's effect on menswear instantaneous? Do you remember people in your orbit or in fashion, what they thought? Was it love at first sight? Did it take a while for the Armani effect to go into effect? I think it was pretty rapid fire.

5:32I mean, I didn't really enter the arena until I didn't get to New York till 77. He started in 75. And he was all I remember is like, even when I was an intern, I would hear the fashion director and the fashion editors talking about Armani and Basile and Gianfranco Ferre and Zegna and all these like Italian brands. And the Italians were really starting to percolate to the top. They were doing some really innovative things. And, you know, to be fair, everybody was kind of in their own corner. The Americans were doing incredible work. You know, Ralph Lauren was kind of coming into his heyday. And the kind of modern, preppy, you know, American look was really celebrated.

6:18We had even in those days, we had more menswear designers than we do today even. So the Italian look, the French look, the American look, they were quite diverse. But the Italians were the ones that we always had our eyes on. And I remember the Italian collections, as we used to call them, always had the most pages because it was the most news. Because, you know, Versace was doing something, you know, a little bit more colorful. Foray was doing something a little bit more grand and nostalgic. And Armani was doing something a little bit more modern and looked, hearkened a little bit back to the 20s and the 40s, but was really future thinking in a way.

6:57So Armani was tossed around a lot, and it wasn't really until a couple years later that he built up his momentum and his empire. But he certainly started at rapid pace.

7:13OK, we're going to take a quick break. Thank you.

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8:08So what about other early memories of styling Giorgio Armani clothes for GQ? You had this landmark moment for you when you put the American Gigolo cover. But what other memories stand out? I think because he was such a force in menswear and fashion at that point, he was considered for most stories because his suits were really at the forefront of what was happening in tailored clothing. And all of the Italians were softening up a little bit. You had, you know, movies on the cusp of coming out like Wall Street, which were much more, you know, contained and much more, you know, their suits were more like gladiators in a way.

8:51You know, that was really their uniform and it was a little bit more stiff. But Armani was kind of pushing against that. And just getting back to going to the shows, when I did finally get the opportunity to go to the shows in the mid-80s, I remember seeing all the shows. And they were all great, but Armani would always be the last one. And you would see that show and it would just be, you know, goosebumps for 13 minutes. And the reason it was goosebumps is because you'd never seen a suit walk down a runway have like the swagger that Nermani's suit had. And one of the standout things for me was the fact that his color palette was so unusual and so hard to describe.

9:34It's like, is it a toasty beige, a smoky olive, a chalky taupe? You know, it's like or maybe it's none of those. It was colors you couldn't describe and fabrics you just wanted to kind of like touch. And he was showing then in a much smaller theater. So literally the models would come by and you'd feel the swish of the air and the fabrics. You almost wanted to grab them. So he was giving us something we hadn't seen before, which was super exciting. I think we use the word grayish to describe it, right? That's a good one. Sort of gray, sort of beige, grayish. And kind of the first designer to do monochromatic, you know, like a whole look, to your point, all in gray but in different textures.

10:20So it didn't feel – it still felt really special. I mean, the clothes were luxurious. They were expensive. They were aspirational. And they were definitely going on every GQ shoot. So you've styled 540 GQ covers over your career. Sounds right. How many of them would you say were Armani? Or do you remember the special ones that had Armani on the cover? Remember the movie The Usual Suspects? Yes. So we did a photo shoot. We were, as Vogue is, we're always, you know, trying to kind of back into what's happening in popular culture. And we heard about this movie, The Usual Suspects, that was going to be this incredible movie.

11:11And, you know, no one really knows past the 20 minutes that they show you as a screener. But the cast was amazing with, you know, so many incredible actors. So we decided that we would dress these guys all in Armani because they were all different shapes and sizes. You had Benicio del Toro, who's like, you know, 6 '5", and a big guy. And then, you know, some of the actors were a little bit smaller. And Chaz Palmiteri was like, you know, 44 long or something. And, you know, I just got the idea that, like, let's shoot them all in Armani because it's kind of a telling a double story here. They're going to look great.

11:47You know, the suit is kind of like one of the stars of that movie. And also, you know, it kind of brings home the fact that everyone looks great in Armani. If you put an Armani suit on, you're like good to go and conquer the world. You're golden. There's something hard to describe. the way that clothes make you feel. But something about what Armani does gives men and women who wear the clothes that sensation. And can you go into it a little bit more? What is the magic of what he's doing that creates that feeling of confidence but also quite relaxed at the same time? I mean, what makes him unique?

12:30I mean, that's a super good question. I think, you know, You know, menswear gets a bad rap sometimes because you're really talking about no matter which way you invented or reinvented, it still is about 20 pieces. You know, it's a little bit different than women's. It's more of a system of dressing. It's more of a wardrobe, so to speak. And he was the first one to kind of disrupt that claim and say, you know, you can wear a very elegant suit on the weekend. You just put a cashmere T-shirt under it. Or you can wear this suit to a black tie event as long as you wear, you know, a black shirt and a black tie under it.

13:12And so he was kind of disrupting the codes of menswear a little bit. So instead of it be like, you need a blazer with gold buttons, you need a white starched shirt, you need a striped rep tie, you know, all of these kind of codes of menswear. He was coming in saying like, yeah, I love the suit. I love the shirt. I love the tie. But why can't it be something a little bit more fluid, something a little bit more exciting? And so he was a very early disruptor in changing the landscape of how men looked at themselves in suits. you know because suits are you know it's a coat of armor he's a guy puts on a suit he goes to work he gets compliments because he's wearing something tailored but after a while the suit is like wearing the guy because you know after a while whether it's the interfacing or the shoulder pads or the way it buttons or whatever the suit kind of gets old and it starts to to feel like oh i've got to wear this suit and and armani brought joy back to tailored clothing he he brought this idea that like you're going to feel comfortable in your suit.

14:13You're going to feel comfortable in your tailored pieces. You're going to want to wear one of my top coats with a cashmere hoodie underneath and a pair of jogging pants. You're going to, you know, he taught us how to be an elegant Italian, you know, and have that kind of cosmopolitan look no matter where we lived and gave us the confidence to wear something a little bit softer and not so hard edged. And I think that really changed things forever. Have you worn a lot of Armani over the years? I remember buying my first Armani suit, which was, even with my press discount in those days, was a lot of money because it was expensive.

14:55And I opted for an Emporia Armani suit because the price was a little bit less. But I remember putting it on and just it was a black crepe suit. and just the realization, a lot of times stylists in this business, like myself, it's like we put on a uniform and then our job is to dress other people. But when we put on something really special, we really feel really special. When I put this black Puerhmani crepe suit on, I thought this is a suit that I'm going to wear all the time. I'm going to wear the jacket with a pair of jeans. I'm going to wear the suit to a formal event. I can, you know, I can, it becomes this thing that, you know, you don't need a lot of it.

15:35You just need the right pieces, and they're great investment pieces. So over the years, I had a beautiful shearling from Armani. I had some beautiful top coat. They were all very memorable pieces because they had a certain swagger that didn't overwhelm you but definitely gave you a presence and a look. So when Mr. Armani turned 90 this summer, you posted on Instagram and you said that he still has a lock on the aspirational wardrobe for men. And you used that term earlier in our conversation. What does that mean exactly, especially given the fact that one of the hallmarks of an Armani suit is this sense of like ease?

16:19So how do you combine aspirational and ease? You know, I think throughout menswear culture over the last, you know, 30 or 40 years, the Armani suit, he's not alone in this, but he certainly has the market on a suit that guys look up to. It might be even, you know, we all get excited about something that maybe we want, but it might be a little bit out of reach, whether it be economically or maybe it's something we don't think we're going to get that much use out of, but we kind of want it, right? It's like the thrill of the hunt. And Armani always provided that. He displays his clothing beautifully in all of his stores.

17:02It's a seduction, really. And it's like a retail seduction. And when you go into the store, you're treated beautifully. You're not met by people who are looking on their phones. They're there. They're professionals. And they're going to get you the suit that fits you right. So I think he ushered in this experience that maybe people weren't used to. buying a suit was a little bit like, I got to get this suit, I got to get a tailor and I got to get out of here. And I just got it. I need a black and a gray and a navy and I got to go home, you know, and tailoring was a drag where you go into Armani, it's like this suit's going to change the way you feel.

17:35It's going to be maybe a thousand dollars more than you thought you were going to spend. But the experience overall and the the amount of where you're going to get of the suit and the versatility of it is really going to take you far. And I think people believed in the American gigolo myth as not really being a myth. Like if I buy an Armani suit, the compliments are going to start pouring in and I'm going to be able to walk into the corner office and maybe grab it for myself. That's the secret of all good fashion, right? That it, you know, if I buy this, it is going to make my life better. Exactly.

18:12More on Armani's impact after the break.

18:23Right now, in movies, in the opera, even in pop music, divinely inspired women are everywhere. This week on Critics at Large, we make our case. Saints are having a moment. Look, I can spout off any number of cliches, but they're all true. The world is moving faster and faster. Materialism is now reaching every single corner of the globe. it's very hard to say no and to say stop and to say I will do without. And I think that explains some of the modern cultural appeal. I'm Vincent Cunningham. Join me and my co-hosts on Critics at Large from The New Yorker. Find us every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

19:07Pivoting a little bit, Armani is turning 90. or is 90, he is celebrating his 50th year in business next year. That kind of longevity is just incredible. And you have to be better at just the suit to have that kind of longevity. And he was really at the forefront of fashion and celebrity, that nexus, and was doing a lot of dressing of celebrities in the early 90s, which is I think when I started watching the Oscars and becoming very interested in the fashion. And you started hearing his name a lot. I think at the 1990 Academy Awards, Women's Wear Daily called it the Armani Awards because he dressed so many stars.

19:53So take us back to the late 80s, the 90s, when Art Cooper made that pivot to celebrities on the cover of GQ. How did it shake up fashion and what do you remember about that? That was a great time. I mean, celebrities and fashion, especially at the runway shows, that was kind of unheard of, especially at the men's shows. But I remember specifically going to an Armani show in the late 80s. And, you know, there's this flurry of activity over in a section across from us. You know, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? You know, the photographers move out of the way. The show starts. Still don't recognize any of these people.

20:32Turns out that they're all Italian soccer players that we wouldn't recognize. But in Italy, they're, you know, the kings. So they're all dressed impeccably, each one better looking than the next. They're all David Beckham's and Richard Gere sitting in the front row. And that was kind of like the first foray into like, okay, so that's a great hook. You know, it's like bring in the celebrities. Obviously, the celebrities, it's a perfect storm. It's a symbiotic relationship. You know, the celebrities want to wear Armani. They are very loyal to Giorgio. And they started coming to the shows. And before you know it, it was, you know, an Italian pop star.

21:14And then all of a sudden it crossed over into Hollywood. And then, oh, my gosh, there's George Clooney. There's Leo. There's Brad Pitt. And I think to this day, a lot of those actors still wear Armani. There's an incredible loyalness to him. And I feel like, you know, when I would shoot George Clooney and he, you know, I'm not sure we had to exclusively put him in Armani, but that we put him in some Armani. And his description of Armani was like, you know, I have a busy life and everything he makes fits me perfectly. And whether it's off the rack or custom, you know, we can't all have custom clothes, but he wore a lot off the rack.

21:54He said whether it be a cashmere T-shirt or a beautiful suit or a top coat, it just works for me. So why would I look anywhere else? So I think obviously there's a deal there, but it's like I think he really genuinely loved the clothes. And, you know, even though he was outfitted by Armani, he was always interested in seeing, you know, the rack of clothes that I would bring with me and, you know, try some things on that maybe he wouldn't normally wear. But it was a uniform for him, and it made him feel comfortable. It made him feel good, and he knew that the quality was great. He didn't have to worry about anything, and it probably didn't need that much tailoring.

22:29And, you know, the Giorgio Armani universe is really built on a spirit, you know, a kindred spirit, but also like an aspirational spirit and a way to dress and a way to move through life and a way to be your own celebrity. That's great, your own celebrity. I always regretted that Armani did two shows for women's wear, and I always seemed to be invited to the one where the celebrities weren't. So I never got to see Leonardo DiCaprio in the front row, much to my chagrin. But another thing he did that was innovative, this was in the late 80s. He opened a VIP shopping office in L.A. And you have this Milanese designer with an outpost in L.A.

23:16And that was he was at the forefront of that, which now is a massive, you know, everybody has huge celebrity teams, all of these big, big fashion brands. Yes, I think I mean, looking back at those days and thinking of today, not a lot has changed. I mean, he has the same people in place in L.A., Wanda McDaniels and her crew. And that's another thing that comes with, you know, the Armani Empire is like there's a lot of loyalty within the company. There's a lot of people that have been there for many years that are happy in that industry. There are, you know, celebrities love to be dressed by Armani because they see familiar faces and they know that he has, you know, world class tailors.

23:59And so when he kind of opened this outpost, as you said, in L.A., I think it was just, you know, open arms and, you know, they came running. They came flocking to be dressed by him, the men and the women. And I think it was kind of a natural for the men to be dressed. I think the women's came just a little bit later. I mean, he started off in men's and women's, but it's like he was kind of a men's designer that needed to break into women's. And I think when he did, it was embraced equally. The L.A. connection, the Hollywood connection, was a very natural transition for him. And, yeah, he started.

24:43He opened the gates to red carpet dressing for sure. And even today, there are young Hollywood stars. Hunter Schaefer wore Armani at the Cannes Film Festival this year, styled by Dara Allen. So his appeal and his allure continues for many generations later. Why do you think young people are as turned on as, you know, the Jodie Fosters and the George Cloonies were in the 90s? Well, I think it's a couple of things. First of all, they know that there's, you know, Armani has the element of consistency and surprise, right? Which I think is a good formula for any designer. But Armani kind of invented that idea that, you know, you're going to get these amazing fabrics and these amazing silhouettes, but I'm going to surprise you a little bit, you know, each season.

25:32I remember in 1991, or maybe it's 1990, excuse me, we did a story called the Armani Revolution, which is probably like our 10th Armani story. But this was when he literally, as if the clothing wasn't soft enough, this is when he literally like yanked the shoulder pads out, took all the horsehair lining out, made the suits as light as feather and completely unstructured but very shaped still. And that was a revolution because although the Italians were making things lighter, no one was taking all of the lining out. Because soon as you take all the lining out, then you lose the shape of the jacket.

26:08So he found a way to keep the shape in but to make the suit very lightweight. So these innovations have occurred throughout his career but have kind of backed into his philosophy where he can still make you look elegant, make you look cool, give you this kind of sexy swagger. You're the person in the room everyone's looking at. And I think the younger generation is keyed into that. And on the flip side of that, you know, who doesn't love the 90s? I mean, I just saw your amazing documentary on Vogue in the 90s. And I think he's having a resurgence because that look, you know, Jodie Foster in that pantsuit or Robert De Niro in a suit or whatever.