Armani, ambassador of the best Italian style and doing business

It is said that the Navajo left imperfect stitches when creating their carpets, to prevent the weaver's soul from being trapped. This is one of the great little discoveries one makes when reading the Piccolo manuale illustrato per cercatori di stoffe, just published by Saggiatore, a book that Giorgio Armani would certainly have appreciated: the designer and entrepreneur who died yesterday in Milan at the age of 91 spent his adult life shaping an idea of elegance, often starting precisely from fabrics and textiles. As for the fate of his soul, it is difficult to think of it remaining imprisoned in any way: Giorgio Armani's stylistic, entrepreneurial and human legacy (see the various recollections and in-depth studies on these pages) is so vast as to guarantee him not only the freedom associated with having been a pioneer in every aspect of his work, but also a place in the history of the Italian and global fashion system. If not even a kind of eternity, no matter how fragile and uncertain the current state of the world appears.

Today and tomorrow the funeral chamber will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., set up at the Armani/Teatro in Via Bergognone 59, one of the many physical legacies that the fashion designer bequeathed to Milan, where he moved in 1975, leaving his hometown of Piacenza. By his express will, the funeral will instead be held privately. Even in these choices one can read a lot about the man Armani: over the next 48 hours, many designer colleagues, friends, acquaintances and representatives of the institutions will certainly pay their last respects to him, but there will also be many people visiting the funeral chamber who have never met him personally and perhaps never even bought one of his creations.

Giorgio Armani performed a kind of miracle, in the Italy of the fans: he was admired and respected by all, perhaps also for his irrefutable role as ambassador of some of the most flattering traits of us Italians, while appearing far removed from others, far less flattering. He did not like shortcuts, he admired the Japanese for their ability to project themselves into the future and propose innovations without denying the past. It is also important to recognise his entrepreneurial style: he disappeared covering, in his company, not one but three roles, president, managing director and creative director. It seems almost ungenerous, in his case, to think of a mania for control: it is better to see in his commitment and dedication, right up to his last day, the desire to hand over to the future a solid company that can continue to be an economic and image driver not only for our fashion system, but for the entire country. He was a pioneer in everything and in some cases even prophetic: 2025 is not only the company's 50th anniversary, but also the one in which we celebrate 20 years of haute couture. The Armani Privé collections parade in Paris, in the days of couture of which the French still feel themselves to be the masters, and those unique and extremely exclusive clothes we are seeing these very days on the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival. Armani was among the first to realise the potential of licences, from perfumes to eyewear, and of diversification into areas unexplored by fashion, from hotels to restaurants. An example that many have since followed, as has happened with the link with the world of sport: not only has Giorgio Armani sprouted, around the main brand, more casual, accessible lines designed for different generations, but he has also dressed athletes of many disciplines on and off the field. A love for sport and perhaps for some of the values it expresses also resulted in the purchase of a basketball team, Olimpia Milano, and in the partnership with CONI to design the uniforms of our Olympic and Paralympic national teams.

As for being prophetic, suffice it to recall his intervention a few months after the outbreak of the Covid epidemic in 2020: he invited everyone in the fashion world, including himself and his brands, to reflect on the excesses of previous years. He wished for a return to churning out fewer novelties, but with greater care, convinced that fashion was losing its soul and thus its cultural, social and economic role. He never tired of striving to improve the social and environmental sustainability of his company, with concrete actions, indispensable - not to sound paradoxical - to keep the magic of fashion and its ability to change, for the better, the world.