Giorgio Armani, Legendary Italian Fashion Designer, Dies at 91

Armani brought power suits into the American fashion lexicon in the 1980s and has dressed every Hollywood A-lister

Giorgio Armani, the legendary fashion designer, has died. He was 91 years old.

On Thursday, Sept. 4, the fashion house announced that Armani “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.” The press release states that the designer “worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections, and the many ongoing and future projects.”

A statement from Armani’s employees and family reads: “In this company, we have always felt like part of a family. Today, with deep emotion, we feel the void left by the one who founded and nurtured this family with vision, passion, and dedication. But it is precisely in his spirit that we, the employees and the family members who have always worked alongside Mr. Armani, commit to protecting what he built and to carrying his company forward in his memory, with respect, responsibility, and love.”

Armani’s death comes after a period of missing key events for the fashion house. In June, he missed the menswear show during Milan Fashion Week for the first time in 50 years, per AP. However, per the outlet, the designer was watching the show’s live stream while he recovered from an “undisclosed condition.”

Armani, whose eponymous Italian fashion empire includes the couture line Armani Privé, ready-to-wear line Emporio Armani and street line Armani Exchange, was born on July 11, 1934, in Piacenza, Italy, to parents Maria Raimondi and Ugo Armani.

He initially didn’t intend to set out to be in fashion at all. He studied medicine at the university level for three years until he left to serve his two required years of military service. Afterward, he got a job at a department store in Milan as a window dresser. He moved up to work as a buyer before venturing into design in the mid-’60s, working for designer Nino Cerruti.

In 1975, he decided to start his own label with his business and romantic partner Sergio Galeotti. Almost immediately, he found major success thanks to the way he deconstructed men’s suits and reinvented them with a softer fabric and a looser, fuller fit, which eventually became his signature design style beloved by the world.

By the 1980s, Armani suits became a power symbol for American businessmen thanks in part to the brand’s prominence in pop culture. Richard Gere’s Armani wardrobe in the 1980 film American Gigolo sky-rocketed the brand into the American lexicon. Thanks to Miami Vice, the now-iconic look of a T-shirt worn under a loose-fitting Armani-style suit jacket, the Italian style was fully infused into American dressing.

Quickly after winning over the businessmen of America, Armani moved on to conquer the red carpet. Julia Roberts memorably wore a menswear-inspired suit to the 1990 Golden Globes, telling InStyle she picked it right off the rack. “I loved the shape of it,” she said. “For me, this was the epitome of being dressed up.”

Other celebrity fans include Rihanna, who has worn memorable Armani looks to the Grammy Awards, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. He even dressed Lady Gaga during her infamous avant-garde days.

When Armani designed all of Lady Gaga’s red carpet and performance looks for the 2010 Grammy Awards, she praised his work. “I am honored to be wearing Armani this evening,” she said in a statement to Us Weekly at the time. “The series of pieces Mr. Armani created for me are truly iconic; they represent not only beautiful fashion, but my spirit and essence as an artist. Mr. Armani is a fashion legend, and tonight would not have been the same without his touch, and his wonderful team.”

Blanchett was at the 40th anniversary celebration of the brand in 2015 and said the reason she keeps returning to the house of Armani is because “it’s got this extraordinary melange between the masculine and the feminine. I think that’s a line that I enjoy walking, aesthetically.”

Also at the event, Glenn Close recalled her very first piece of Armani clothing. “I bought my first Armani blazer in his boutique in New York on Madison Avenue in ’85, I think it was, so not very long after he came to our country, and I still have a closet full of those beautiful suits, those classic suits, and I still wear them,” she said.

Many A-listers have also enlisted Armani’s help for their special day. Katie Holmes and Princess Charlene of Monaco are two stars who walked down the aisle in a custom creation. Of Charlene’s off-white wedding gown, Armani told British Vogue he wanted to design “a completely modern look, without any obvious sense of nostalgia or revivalism.”

In a 2017 interview with How to Spend It, he credited his success to his ability to stick to his signature style, forgoing fads. “I have never been interested in being trendy for the sake of it,” he said. “I have my own vision and ideas and am not afraid to go countercurrent. Fashion tides change constantly, after all. There are times when fashion drifts away from my aesthetic beliefs, and there are times when it gets close. I just don’t care.”

What he told the Business of Fashion is that he cares about making clothes that are relevant to everyday life. “If you make clothes that are not part of the world we live in, they will be meaningless,” he said. “This is very important and it is the real reason why I’m still here after 40 years, the reason why I get upset when things are not done the way I want.”

Another aspect of his longevity and success as a designer boiled down to a very simple equation: “Eighty percent of what I do is discipline,” he told How to Spend It. “The rest is creativity.”

Being the mastermind behind every creative aspect of his booming business did come at a cost to his personal life. “But I understood, too, that success like this requires total commitment, if it is going to take on a life of its own,” he told GQ. “I’m disappointed that many times I had to give up relationships for work.”

But in the end, he lived with no regrets. “In reality, though, I have no regrets. I did what I wanted.”