Giorgio Armani - in between polemic with Gucci – takes Emporio in a pop direction

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Feb 25, 2018

Giorgio Armani, in between polemics against Gucci, sent out an upbeat youthful Emporio Armani collection on a freezing Sunday morning.

And the mood was as playful as it was doom laden at Gucci. Where Armani had a jaunty air, with Candi Staton singing soul classic You Got the Love on the soundtrack as his cast came down the catwalk in mixes of green and black, chez Gucci, in a meditation on cloning, several models walked with replicas of their own head, and another carried a fake baby dragon.
 
“I don’t want at any price to exaggerate facile emotions. For certain tones are not absent from today’s catwalks… A facile emotionalism. I’ll ask you this question - anyone can do whatever they want but, let me say, if I put a head on the runway, under someone’s arm, cut in two, we really are at the limits and I don’t want to play that sort of game. I take my self out of that sort of sport.  I don’t even want my friends to look at others who are doing that sort of thing. If that’s what people are really up to, better we all stay at home!” Armani told the Italian media after his signature show on Saturday.

The ruckus caused headlines in Italian papers this weekend, with the local media faintly incensed that Gucci’s designer Alessandro Michele presented models with exact reproductions of their own heads under their arms. Italian commentators described the show, set in a fake operating room, as macabre and insensitive, and lacking in respect for truly ill individuals.
 
A spokesman for Gucci said the house had no comment to make on Armani’s remarks.
 
On his catwalk, Giorgio concentrated on rhinestone rebel party gals, in green and black pinstripe suits; shaggy coats and neat cocktails with metal shoulders.
 
He sent out micro minis, cut 12 inches up the thigh; and meters of faux fur, including a fake bearskin green and black halter neck cocktail emblazoned with his EA. Even the Emporio eagle logo was projected in green on the backdrop.
 
Though what will most remain in people’s memory of this weekend is Armani’s overt attack on a fellow designer.