Giorgio Armani

By January 2026, Silvana Armani had assumed principal authorship of Giorgio Armani womenswear and artistic direction of Privé. Her remit follows decades in the women’s studio and couture programme without making her chief executive or designer of every group line.

By January 2026, Leo Dell’Orco had assumed principal authorship of Giorgio Armani menswear after decades in the men’s style office. His remit is line-specific and sits alongside his chairmanship rather than constituting a blanket group creative-director title.

Leo Dell’Orco became chairman of Giorgio Armani S.p.A., Giuseppe Marsocci became chief executive and Silvana Armani became vice-president on 16 October 2025. The appointments separated offices previously concentrated under the founder.

The founder’s wills allocated capital and voting rights among the Giorgio Armani Foundation, Leo Dell’Orco and family heirs. The Foundation initially held 10 per cent of capital with 30 per cent of votes and Dell’Orco held 40 per cent of votes; the required future stake sale remained uncompleted.

Giorgio Armani died in Milan on 4 September 2025 after retaining controlling, executive and principal creative authority to the end of his life. His death activated a divided succession across ownership, governance, executive office and line-specific design.

Armani/Silos opened Giorgio Armani Privé 2005–2025: Twenty Years of Haute Couture in Milan. Approximately 150 looks from around 40 collections made the division’s archive publicly accessible across the museum.

Giorgio Armani and Kith released The Archetype, a four-part menswear and accessories project made in Italy. The collaboration joined Armani tailoring to Kith’s retail and product system without transferring design credit to its campaign cast.

This runway is now represented in Collections rather than the Creative Eras chronology.

This runway is now represented in Collections rather than the Creative Eras chronology.

The group announced a portfolio reorganisation on 27 February 2017 and applied it from Spring–Summer 2018. Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans ended as separately classified lines, leaving Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and A|X as the principal fashion brands.

Giorgio Armani established the Giorgio Armani Foundation to safeguard governance and principles of the company. The structure prepared for succession but did not displace the founder while he lived.

Giorgio Armani developed performance wardrobes for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball and Born This Way Ball tours between 2010 and 2012. The work was a sustained stage-costume relationship rather than a seasonal collection or an isolated celebrity dressing.

Giorgio Armani launched Privé in Paris as the house’s dedicated haute couture and made-to-measure division. A newly established Milan atelier produced the first collection and sustained the subsequent couture programme.

Armani/Teatro opened in Via Bergognone, Milan, in a space created with Tadao Ando. It gave the house a permanent presentation environment rather than a new clothing line.

Earlier bridge-line functions were consolidated under the Armani Collezioni name. The Trimil joint venture governed menswear production and commercialisation while design authority remained with Armani.

Yolanda Zobel began her fashion career as a junior designer on Giorgio Armani’s main womenswear collection and remained through 2005. The pre-existing record is retained as studio experience, not principal collection authorship.

Giorgio Armani designed the costumes for Robert Wilson and Susan Sontag’s The Lady from the Sea, first staged in Ferrara and later remounted internationally.

Giorgio Armani announced a dedicated golf-wear programme in 1995 for intended Spring 1996 delivery. The launch is retained at year precision because the first delivered collection and the programme’s end remain unresolved.

Giorgio Armani launched Neve as a men’s and women’s ski and après-ski clothing programme. Its eventual end and formal relationship to EA7 remain unresolved.

Giorgio Armani designed the costumes for Jonathan Miller’s Royal Opera House production of Così fan tutte. The production returned in later revivals without becoming a new commission for every restaging.

A Gucci Group corporate biography records Stefano Pilati as Assistant Men’s Design Director at Armani from 1992 to 1993. The pre-existing record is preserved without assigning him overall collection authorship.

Martin Scorsese directed Made in Milan, a short documentary centred on Giorgio Armani’s working process and relationship to the city. It is an image and cultural collaboration rather than a costume commission.

Giorgio Armani launched an eyewear programme through the Luxottica licensing relationship. Specialist production expanded the house into optical products without creating a separate fashion brand.

Sergio Galeotti’s death ended the founding 50–50 partnership. Near-contemporary reporting states that his share passed to Giorgio Armani by bequest, consolidating ownership and ultimate management while the company’s studio and executive organisation continued.

Giorgio Armani and costume designer Marilyn Vance collaborated on the lead costumes for Streets of Fire, with garments made in multiples in Milan. Vance retained the production’s overall costume-designer credit.

Giorgio Armani created dresses for Janis Martin in La Scala’s production of Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung. The commission is the house’s first documented theatre engagement, without implying responsibility for every production costume.

American Gigolo credited Giorgio Armani S.p.A. for assistance with Richard Gere’s wardrobe. The film retained its credited costume personnel, so the project is recorded as character wardrobe support rather than complete costume design.

The agreement with Gruppo Finanziario Tessile introduced licensed industrial manufacture and distribution for selected Armani lines. A United States operating structure followed in 1979 without transferring collection authorship or ownership of the house.

Barneys New York introduced Giorgio Armani clothing to the United States in 1976. The relationship established an early American retail audience for the house before the later expansion of its own operating structure.

Giorgio Armani and Sergio Galeotti founded the company in Milan on 24 July 1975. Armani led design; Galeotti was co-owner, chairman and the commercial and operational partner.