Dario Vitale appointed Creative Director at Emporio Armani

The announcement came just a few minutes ago: an irreverent faun, a Pan who stirs up unsettling pagan visions, a Dionysus of eclectic accumulation who dresses only to undress, enters the rooms on Via Borgonuovo, and certainly nothing will ever be the same again – or perhaps everything will be as it was before, though by that we mean 1981: the heyday of democracy and sexuality as the primary driving force behind the act of putting outfits together.

After a year that was essentially conservative, yet by no means static, a seismic shock: the Armani world is entering a new phase with the arrival of Dario Vitale as creative director of Emporio. The persistent speculation and gossip of recent months were therefore correct, so this bolt from the blue is only apparent.

Of course, at first glance, Vitale – to whom we owe a single, magnificent collection at Versace, exactly a year ago, as well as the very physical, very unorthodox, very carnal intuition underpinning Miu Miu’s current success, seems light years away from the greige, the liquid purity and the Olympian inspiration of Armani; yet we must not forget that this is Emporio, the ‘umbrella brand’ according to Giorgio’s perfect definition, and that if this is the case, the points of convergence are in fact innumerable, which is why the appointment must be regarded as a stroke of genius and a sign of foresight – qualities that are, indeed, quintessentially Armanian.

Of course, at this stage we are still in the realm – much loved by fashionistas, who are always prone to making predictions – of speculation and ‘fantasy fashion’ forecasts, but what makes Vitale the perfect candidate for the role is the convergence of two factors: a sexualised outfit, in the crudest and most playfully perverse sense, and the concept of the emporium – the place where one can find everything and anything – which aligns with his eclecticism as a post-postmodern creator, with all the rapid succession of references, quotations and random sampling that this entails.

Vitale achieves something rare, and the buzz that still surrounds that one and only Versace fashion show is proof of this: he harnesses desire, in the purest and most physical sense of the word; he infuses it into clothes and accessories, transforming them from inert objects into fetishes. It is the same sense of urgency that underpinned Emporio Armani, and which has inevitably been lost over the years. There, perhaps, the tone was Apollonian, whilst Vitale leans towards the Dionysian, and this heralds magnetic sparks – the sort that can only do Milan, and the fashion system in general, a world of good.