Giorgio Armani arranges a mannequin behind the showcase of his historic boutique in via Montenapoleone.
He continued to work until the last, taking care of the belle of the mannequin of the fashion shows. There are even those who surprised him, at the venerable age 91 years, with the pins in his mouth, pin one of his garments on a mannequin, behind the showcase of the boutique in via Montenapoleone. The photo runs on social media and is surprising. Moreover, the care of detail is part of the entrepreneurial genius, as all the real entrepreneurs know, and Giorgio Armani, the former window of the Rinascente capable of building an empire of lifestyle and fashion starting from nothing, a genius was really.
It could be fully inserted in the Pantheon of the great entrepreneurs who made Italy great: Enzo Ferrari, Adriano Olivetti, Giovanni Agnelli, Leopoldo Pirelli, Leonardo Del Vecchio to name the first ones who come to mind. But this Milanese capable of transforming fabrics into dreams has had an international, global dimension, such as Akio Marita, the founder of Sony, or Coco Chanel or Steve Jobs. It could be said that Giorgio Armani is a “modern Renaissance”: a little Leonardo for harmony, Brunelleschi for structural innovation, Lorenzo the Magnificent for patrons, cells for the treatment of detail, Raffaello for proportionate elegance. Let’s exaggerate? It may be, but certainly any entrepreneur, craftsman, designer, organizer, philanthropist, cannot ignore the biography and works of his long life if he wants to steal at least a drop of his multifaceted personality: creativity, vision, dedication, maniacal care of particular, culture, humanity. It is not obvious to say that if our country wants to leave will have to collect its inheritance and follow its way. He was born in Piacenza on 11 July 1934, in a modest family who could not imagine fate sewn on that shy boy.
Study medicine for a while, but soon understands that it is not the right shirt. He replaces him with the fabric, first as a windowist at the Rinascente, then as a stylist assistant. In the mid -seventies, together with Sergio Galeotti, he founded his fashion house. It is 1975: Italy lives the years of lead, but Armani draws destructured, light jackets that return freedom of movement. A small gesture that becomes revolution. Hollywood notices it immediately: Richard Gere in American Gigolo Dress Armani and transform the brand into myth. Since then the star of Giorgio the Magnificent will not stop shining, illuminating catwalks and red carpet. Reserved man, lover of sport and discipline, builds an empire without ever detaching himself from his sober and unmistakable trait. “Elegance is not to get noticed, but to be remembered,” he said. “My job is not to do clothes,” he added, “it is helping people feel good with what they wear”.
He has dressed presidents, stars, Olympic athletes. But above all he wore an idea: that of timeless elegance, capable of making anyone feel at ease in their shoes. It leaves a heritage of 12 billion and an empire of fashion and luxury on which the sun does not set, which gives work to 9 thousand employees, with 650 stores in the world and a turnover of 2 and a half billion. But behind this wealth, like a good size dress, there is a “cumnda” trial, made of hours and hours on the tailored basins, then in the fashion houses, in the artisan workshops and finally in the great industrial complexes that are headed by his kingdom. On which he continued to watch like a kind patriarch, faithful to work and his aesthetics. Because the style, for him, is not appearance: it is a form of truth.
