Fashion 89 : Armani Expands His Taste for New Ventures
Fettuccine Armani? It’s possible, beamed Giorgio Armani, who stopped in Los Angeles for a few hours last Friday and announced, among other things, that he’ll have restaurants in his new Emporio shops slated to open in Europe this spring.
Emporio Armani is the Italian designer’s zippy young sportswear collection for men and women, with lower prices than his regular Giorgio Armani lines. It is fast becoming the status label among trendy young Europeans, who buy it in 150 free-standing Emporio shops that dot the Continent and will soon invade the Orient and the United States.
Plans for expansion of Emporio, which Armani calls “my favorite child,” include 10 new boutiques in England, 10 in Germany, 4 in France and 75 in Japan. A 10,000-square-foot Emporio will open on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in March.
First to Open
The first Cafe Armani opens Feb. 14 within the new Emporio in the Knightsbridge district of London, Armani said. The 50-seat eatery will have the decor of a sleek, 1930s railroad dining car and will offer light, all-natural foods like those he eats. (Armani serves simple, vegetarian meals at his own home, a 16th-Century palazzo in Milan.)
Another Armani restaurant, same menu, will open in March in his new Florence, Italy, shop.
Armani has looked for the right spot to open a Los Angeles Emporio, but says he hasn’t found it yet. Besides, he admitted, he’d like to make sure his recently opened Rodeo Drive Giorgio Armani boutique is properly launched before he commits to any other L.A. endeavors.
He needn’t worry. The King of Italian fashion has a worldwide clientele of the fashionable and famous, including many top Hollywood names. (He will reportedly do costumes for an upcoming Meryl Streep film, but would not confirm it.)
And as proof of their devotion, about 40 Los Angeles friends turned up for a luncheon last Friday to which they were invited only hours before. (Armani had a 5-hour layover here on his way home to Milan from vacation in Bora Bora.)
The last-minute Bistro Gardens guest list included Lakers coach Pat Riley (who wears Armani on the cover of GQ this month), Elton John, Dennis Hopper, Ali MacGraw, Alexander Godunov, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diane Lane, Gordon Thompson, “Mississippi Burning” director Alan Parker, Mike and Patricia Medavoy and sculptor Robert Graham.
After lunch, the designer inspected his new Rodeo Drive shop, which he hadn’t seen since its completion.
How did he like the store?
“I would need days to understand this space, which is all about subtlety and details,” he replied.
It was a thoughtful appraisal of the 13,000-square-foot boutique, which ranks among the more elaborate architectural understatements in L.A. retailing. It is the largest of his U.S. boutiques and is expected to gross $17 million this year.
He Is a Rare Species
Armani is not glib. And though his life style appears relaxed and his social connections glamorous, he is known within the industry as a workaholic, a perfectionist and a design genius. He is also prolific. In addition to the multiple menswear and women’s-wear collections he designs each season, he said he personally designs all the shoes, ties, scarfs, umbrellas, belts and other accessories that bear his logo. In other words, he is that rare species: a successful designer with no licensees. “I would never sell my name for use by someone else, just to earn money.”
Since 1974, when he first designed under his own label, Armani has won worldwide acclaim for inventing unconstructed men’s clothes and minimalist women’s sportswear so unique that they are immediately identifiable as Armani to any fashion buff who sees them.
But what on Earth was this taste maker wearing on his feet, a reporter asked on Friday, staring at what looked suspiciously like well-worn American Topsiders. “They’re by Timberland,” Armani laughed. “I only wear them on holiday.”
Nor was he dressed to impress. His pale, cotton knit polo shirt, rumpled jacket and blue wash pants were obviously vacation clothes, which he said he had worn for 14 hours on the plane and then out to lunch. If he had been “dressed as usual,” he would have been in the navy sweater and gray pants outfit he normally wears to greet guests after fashion shows in the theater of his Milan home.
“I wear navy because I don’t like to be noticed and it helps to fade me out,” Armani said, typically humble. As Women’s Wear Daily once wrote of him, “like a simple, country doctor, Armani’s manner and personality are devoid of affectation. There are no stereotyped fashion house-head mannerisms.”
Profits and Awards
In fact, to hear Armani talk, he doesn’t even realize he’s “arrived.” Forget the $350-million annual gross, the numerous fashion awards, the worldwide reputation for creativity and understated elegance. Armani leaned back in his chair the other day, pondered his goals and announced he “would like to build something lasting.”
“I want all my boutiques, and the merchandise inside them, to have lasting-power. Nothing must be disposable or good for just one season or two. That sounds simple, but it is the hardest thing for a designer to do.”
Yes, but his clothes are already collectors’ items, worn until they are threadbare by some of his fans.
“I want to do the same for home furnishings,” Armani said. He will begin with Emporio-label stationery, paper goods and sachets, he said. Eventually, he will design all sorts of Emporio home accessories, including bed linens and towels.
