Three events in Via Bergognone and a book to commemorate King Giorgio
From Monday to Sunday: first the authorised biography, then the Emporio, then the Giorgio Armani collection fashion show. And the pages of a story yet to be written.
Can a friendship be called such even if it has never extended beyond the confines of work? Absolutely, and it happens more often than one might think: Roberta Filippini, in the first authorised biography dedicated to Giorgio Armani (Giorgio secondo Armani. La vita oltre il successo, Marsilio Editore, 364 pp., €18.90), paints an intimate and personal portrait – an authentic jigsaw puzzle in which every piece represents a choice, an encounter, a challenge, a commitment, joy, luck, love and solitude. Here, one almost glimpses the man’s need to reveal himself from an affectionate distance, and the time set aside for his meetings with the author is ample and unrestricted, without any reticence.
The book does not follow a chronological order, although it begins with a core of memories and a sense of family that would come to define Armani’s style. A striking detail is a photograph from the 1950s showing him wearing a red-and-white Vichy check cotton shirt, which he had seen and copied from an American film and which became his obsession at the time. More well-known is his decision to drop out of medical school, prompted by a form of osmophobia and following the shocking experience of the dissection table. Yet, dressing people would become for him not only the fulfilment of a profound aesthetic need, but also one of the ways in which he could appreciate the allure of the human body and, in a sense, ‘heal’ it.
In 1949, the Armani family moved from Piacenza to Milan. Here, after finishing secondary school, Giorgio gradually – and not without difficulty – found his professional path, beginning at La Rinascente, where he initially worked without a specific role, and continuing with his collaboration with Nino Cerruti, a master of understated elegance, characterised by sophisticated design and meticulous attention to detail.
Roberta Filippini’s account continues, revealing, page by page, in a sort of cinematic sequence, the life, work and identity of one of the most significant and enduring designers in Italian fashion. A man who has managed to break free from conventions and rigidity, creating – through extraordinary talent and unshakeable determination – a distinctive and unique style.
