The business of fashion is fascinating. Fashion contains the fantasies and glamour that feeds our dreams while captivating us with the theatre of everyday life. With fashion nowadays, we can pick and choose from a plethora of identities to project to the rest of the world.
This column pays homage to those designers that have paved the way for us to express our individualities and personalities through fashion – an A to Z of fashion history. After all, any self-respecting fashionista should know her Versace from her Valentino, darling!
A is for Armani
Giorgio Armani is revered as one of the most important and influential fashion designers of our time – known for his clean, tailored lines, and for perfecting the 1980s powersuit style, which he came to epitomise. He nearly didn't enter fashion at all. Instead he originally trained in medicine, which he later gave up to pursue photography.
After a stint as a window dresser, Armani broke into the fashion world when he worked as a designer for fashion house Nino Cerruti – where he spent nine years experimenting with the cut and cloth of menswear.
In 1975 he established Giorgio Armani with his partner Sergio Galeotti and a starting capital of only $10,000 that they got from selling their Volkswagon. Although he initially specialised in menswear, it was his flirtation with womenswear that saw his talents fully realised. Adapting menswear to suit women, his unstructured yet tailored style, always toying with proportion in the softest fabrics, has been hailed as the most influential looks in womenswear this century.
In 2001 Forbes names Giorgio Armani the most successful Italian designer, estimating his net worth at $1.7 billion. Armani's relaxed yet sophisticated style established a new standard of understated elegance in the fashion world. He describes his design philosophy as evolution – not revolution, and says his ultimate goal is to be true to himself, and true to his customers.
By Nikki Webber - Christchurch
