Legendary Italian designer Giorgio Armani has died, the Armani Group introduced on Thursday. He was 91.
“With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group broadcasts the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving power,” the corporate mentioned in a press release offered on behalf of Armani’s household and staff.
“On this firm, now we have all the time felt like a part of a household,” learn one other assertion offered by the model. “As we speak, with deep emotion, we really feel the void left by the one who based and nurtured this household with imaginative and prescient, ardour, and dedication. However it’s exactly in his spirit that we, the staff and the relations who’ve all the time labored alongside Mr. Armani, decide to defending what he constructed and to carrying his firm ahead in his reminiscence, with respect, duty, and love.”
Armani poses for a portrait for Armani Fall 1980 Able to Put on Advance Preview With Designer in Milan, Italy, in February 1980. (Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media through Getty Photographs)
Armani’s designs are recognized for his or her class and trendy Italian type. He’s credited with revolutionizing males’s trend within the Seventies and Eighties, combining the sharp look of a businessman and the aptitude of a designer with unstructured jackets and muted coloration palettes. His work additionally prolonged past the runway, as he elevated Hollywood movie star wardrobes and trend on the pink carpet.
Armani made his movie star Hollywood debut on the fiftieth Academy Awards with actress Diane Keaton in April 1978. He styled her in a beige jacket with an extended skirt, and he or she was the primary actress to put on his designs on the pink carpet.
Diane Keaton on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on April 3, 1978. (Ron Galella Assortment through Getty Photographs)
Celeb tributes to Armani poured in on Thursday following the information of his dying.
Actress Julia Roberts, a longtime fan turned good friend of Armani, wrote, “A real good friend. A Legend. 💔”
In a sequence of posts on X, Australian actor Russell Crowe recalled how his misplaced baggage on the best way to the Cannes Movie Competition in 1997 led him to his love of Armani trend.
“Mr Armani has made a deep contribution, to trend, to design, to well-liked tradition,” he wrote. “His power, imaginative and prescient and finesse has made a mark acknowledged across the globe. I adored him. He was so variety. So many vital moments in my life, awards, marriage ceremony, Wimbledon… all in Armani.”
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani paid tribute to the long-lasting designer, who he described as “a timeless expertise and ambassador of Made in Italy on this planet,” mentioned in a translated publish on X.
“A visionary of trend, a refined interpreter of the class and fantastic thing about our Nation. [He] represents a unprecedented story of success,” he added.
Italian TV presenter Simona Ventura mentioned on social media, “Giorgio, you’re and can all the time be our KING.”
In June, Armani was compelled to drop out of his firm’s reveals at Milan’s Males’s Style Week, marking the primary time in his profession that he missed one among his personal trend occasions. On the time, the corporate launched a press release with out specifying his well being situation, solely saying that Armani was “presently recovering at dwelling.”
Armani co-founded the luxurious trend home bearing his title in 1975 in Milan, Italy. He was generally known as “Re Giorgio” (King Giorgio) and oversaw each element of his assortment and each element of his enterprise, together with promoting campaigns to fixing fashions’ hair earlier than strolling on the runway.
Armani throughout the preparation of his autumn-winter assortment in Milan in 1983. (Vittoriano Rastelli through Getty Photographs)
Armani was one of many few luxurious designers to stay the one shareholder of his firm, which made $2.7 billion a 12 months. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index signifies the style designer’s web price to be $9.43 billion.
The Armani Group mentioned a public funeral chamber can be arrange on Saturday and Sunday in Milan. A non-public funeral can be held at an unspecified date.