Giorgio Armani

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.

Emporio Armani and Our Legacy Work Shop developed two archive-based releases. The second project, delivered for Spring–Summer 2025, added womenswear and recreated archival fabrics rather than relying only on customised vintage stock.

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

Emporio Armani and C.P. Company released a twenty-piece menswear capsule combining Armani restraint with C.P. Company’s proprietary technical fabrics. The project was a co-developed clothing collection outside the main seasonal runway.

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 S.p.A. acquired the remaining half of the A|X operating venture, bringing production, distribution and retail operations under full group control. The transaction did not refound the brand, which dates to 1991.

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.

Reebok and Armani developed connected Emporio Armani footwear and EA7 apparel and footwear ranges. The project combined Reebok technology with Armani fashion and performance design rather than functioning as a logo licence.

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.

EA7 launched as Emporio Armani’s sports and performance clothing division. Its technical remit separated activewear and institutional kit programmes from the main Emporio fashion collections.

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.

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.

Giorgio Armani launched A|X Armani Exchange as an accessible urban fashion brand aimed initially at the American market. Its first store opened in SoHo, New York, in December 1991.

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.

Giorgio and Rosanna Armani transformed a collection catalogue into Emporio Armani Magazine, placing clothing within wider visual, cultural and geographic narratives. The programme developed a durable editorial identity separate from the runway calendar.

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.

Emporio Armani used the Via Broletto billboard in Milan for a monumental outdoor campaign. The site became a recurring urban image platform rather than a seasonal collection or retail location.

Giorgio Armani launched Emporio Armani in Milan as a younger, more accessible and metropolitan fashion brand with its own retail, product and visual identity. Armani Jeans and Armani Junior entered the wider group architecture in the same year.

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.