Silence. Broken only by the notes of Ludovico Einaudi, who on the piano performs its composition “white clouds”, the same melody that had accompanied the burning chamber of Giorgio Armani, who passed away on September 4th. Just a few days before its parade, Sunday at the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan, the latest designed by the stylist, to celebrate his 50 years of fashion. And they are still the same lanterns used for its farewell to illuminate the courtyard with the colonnade, but it is right that it is so, because this was how it had been thought, before the disappearance by King Giorgio, and because this collection is the testament of Armani.
Seven hundred guests, a parade of stars: Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, from Hollywood, and then the Senator Liliana Segre, the daughter of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Laura, Lilli Gruber, Tony Servillo, Valeria Golino, Isabella Ferrari, Margherita Buy, Anna Ferzetti, Roberto, Bolle, Santo Versace and his wife Francesca De Stefano, Bianca Balti and his models of the heart Antonia Dellapetto and Lauren Hutton, also interpreter of “American Gigolò”, the film that launched Armani, and Richard Gere, in the cinema. On the catwalk the others who have accompanied him throughout his career, one above all: Agnese Zogla, who closes the show with a long blue iridescent dress, which on the bodice makes the stylist’s profile glimpse. The same iconic profile printed on the white t shirt, which arrived together with the invitation, which some decided to wear under the tuxedo: the dress code was in fact black tie.
The Brera courtyard is therefore transformed into the set of a style that will remain forever, which Armani has created, built and pursued for 50 years. The last collection says everything, a concentrate of King Giorgio who is dedicated to his places of the heart: Milan and Pantelleria, the Sicilian island where he spent his holidays and who loved deeply. It is therefore the grays of the metropolis that marks its famous day tailleur, with destructural jackets, and the blue of the sea and the sky to turn on the evening. Those of the Mediterranean island on the border between Europe and Africa, the land of suggestions and wild nature, of contrasts, of volcanic rocks and green spots, of infinite horizons, surrounded by the blue of the sea. That same sea that had also made the background to the spot of Giò’s water perfume. That island where Giorgio Armani relaxed and drew inspiration, where he ran on a scooter and stopped with everyone, always smiling.
Everything appears fluid, light, as ready to give in to the winds of the island, to its light, to the purity of an uncontaminated place. The kind smile of Giorgio Armani is missing, at the end of the parade when on the catwalk they overlook, embraced by a thunderous applause, Silvana Armani, grandson of Giorgio and Leo Dell’Orco, companion, collaborator and greater heir. The emotion is palpable. After the show, all guests go to visit the exhibition “Milan for love” where, in the midst of the masterpieces of the Brera Academy, the clothes of the great designer are exhibited. Something never happened that returns the majesty of Armani’s work. And also its delicacy, discretion, elegance without comparisons. A man who has changed fashion with his style, a man who worked without ever stopping, indeed perhaps too much, sometimes forgetting himself of himself, as he had declared in one of the last interviews. On Sunday evening an era closed, the era of a kind genius, an extraordinary teacher who has changed fashion forever. Thanks Mr. Armani.
