Giorgio Armani, the Italian Designer Who Changed the Shape of Fashion, Has Died

Giorgio Armani, who designed the uniform of aspiration that both defined the 1980s and shaped the course of fashion beyond it, has died, it was announced today. He had turned 91 on July 11. His passing was confirmed by the company.

“With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani,” a statement read. “Il Signor Armani, as he was always respectfully and admiringly called by employees and collaborators, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. Indefatigable to the end, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections, and the many ongoing and future projects.”

Unarguably the most successful Italian fashion designer in history, Armani was also its most successful entrepreneur. He was the sole shareholder in his eponymous company, Giorgio Armani S.p.a, whose interests expanded far beyond apparel to encompass hotels, homewares, and even confectionery. The business he began from scratch in 1975, funded with the sale of his Volkswagen Beetle, saw revenues of 2.1 billion euros in 2019 and employs around 8,000 people worldwide. His own personal wealth has been estimated at 11 billion dollars. Remarkably, when he founded his company, Armani was already 40 years old. It would take him only seven years to go from unknown to Time Magazine cover star, which in 1982 represented the apex of cultural recognition.

Armani began designing both womenswear and menswear as a freelancer in the early 1970s, after a six year stint as protege to the tailor Nino Cerruti, for whom he worked on a sportswear label named Hitman. Prior to that he spent seven years working at the Milan department store La Rinascente, where he had served as window dresser and assistant buyer. Armani opened his own design studio with the encouragement of his partner in both life and business, the architect Sergio Galeotti. As Armani told GQ in 2015: “Sergio made me believe in myself. He made me see the bigger world.” The two men set up their company—Galeotti was chairman and co-owner—alongside assistant Irene Pantene (who still works for the company today) and showed their first womenswear collection on the Camera Della Moda calendar for Fall 1976, a collection for which they secured a distribution deal with Barneys.

At that first on-schedule show, Armani presented 12 models wearing looks featuring the light and loose deconstructed men’s suit jackets that he had already shown alongside menswear at a 60 look co-ed show in January. At the end, those 12 models came together down the runway, paused, and then danced to music played via record by Galeotti from backstage. Armani had already become a buzzed-about designer in Milan nascent’s fashion scene thanks to his supple and sporty leather blouson jackets for men, and these earliest collections for women proved similarly arresting to the media.