Silent dedication to work, respect for the work of others

The measure of success, in Armani's language, is precisely measure. In a world that rewards superabundance, he has always followed the reverse movement, existential even before stylistic, unfolding towards the infinitesimal. A minute work directed towards essence and precision "because simple is never the starting point, but the point of arrival". This is why silence is perhaps the most honest way of remembering him.

It is 27 February 2022, Putin has just invaded Ukraine, and Giorgio Armani closes Milan Fashion Week with a choice that is entirely natural to him, honed over a lifetime: he subtracts. "Out of respect for people's suffering", he removes, reduces, eliminates. His collection goes on the catwalk without music, in a suspended atmosphere, tuned only 'to the beating of my heart' (as he comments, backstage). To be there, in the audience, is to participate in a ritual: to go back and listen to the murmur of the fabrics, to hear the sound of footsteps on the velvet, to observe the work of hundreds of hours and hands and craftsmen as the only protagonist, concentrated in each exit, slow, silent. Silence is never a decorative act. It disturbs, displaces, diverges, works as a litmus test of moods, amplifies and reverberates them like the most powerful sounding board. Pure, subversive existence: this is how we can try to be silent today, to tell the story of Giorgio Armani's 91 years, the 50 years of his company, a masterpiece of human and entrepreneurial longevity, letting his aesthetics of doing things, which coincide with his ethics, speak. "It is my life. I have to start from emptiness to work with emotions, to have something around me that is not aseptic, but clean, on which to build. In my vision as a pragmatic inventor, making fashion means developing a coherent idea of beauty. I am a man who has always worked hard, in an orderly, disciplined way and who never stops".

It is this vision that gave us, ten years ago, perhaps the most beautiful HTSI cover dedicated to him. The man the world reveres as King George is in trainers, yellow accident helmet, blue overalls, on top of a lifting platform, inside his Silos, when it was still an open construction site. He is personally climbing up to check the ceiling installations together with the operator. All around are bags of nylon, dust, the lattice structure of the aluminium scaffolding, the concrete walls. Armani looks up while holding his helmet, then puts a hand on the worker's shoulder to congratulate him, looks out smilingly from the red safety bar and looks down at us, who have remained on the ground: it is the perfect shot. Memorable hymn to work for what it is: dirty, imperfect, choral. Spontaneous and revolutionary.

Over the years, there have been more covers and more interviews, many meetings, photo shoots, projects, trips - the most useful to sense the temperament of his character and the permeability of his imagination, to his beloved Japan. "No place is projected so much towards the future, deeply respecting the past. It is a matter of restraint, gentleness and politeness that shines through in everything, even and especially in the way one dresses'.

The clothes speak without the need for words, without the need for music, without the need for anything else. Dressing Armani has become a classic for its constantly sought-after capacity for naturalness, for "merging with the individual, giving everyone the feeling of being themselves, but at their best". It is from there that everything begins - from the emptiness, the silence, the unbridgeable absence of today -, it is from there that everything continues.