A Singular Visionary Who Redefined Elegance, Built an Empire, and Made Hollywood His Runway
Giorgio Armani, the legendary designer whose name became synonymous with understated elegance and modern luxury, has died at the age of 90 in Milan, the city he helped place at the heart of global fashion. The designer passed away just weeks before he was set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his eponymous label.
A funeral chamber will be open to the public this weekend—Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.—inside the Armani/Teatro on Via Bergognone 59. In accordance with his wishes, the funeral itself will be private.
“In this company, we have always felt like part of a family,” Armani’s employees and family said in a statement on Thursday. “With deep emotion, we feel the void left by the one who founded and nurtured this family with vision, passion, and dedication… We commit to protecting what he built and to carrying his company forward in his memory.”
His absence was quietly felt in June, when Armani—recovering at home—chose not to take his customary final bow at the Spring 2026 Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani men’s shows. But even from a distance, his presence still loomed large. As chairman, CEO, and creative director of the group, Armani remained at the helm of one of fashion’s last great independent empires, one that closed 2023 with €2.44 billion in revenues and more than €1 billion in net cash reserves.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer.”
– Giorgio Armani
And what an empire it was: menswear, womenswear, couture, beauty, fragrance, eyewear, watches, hotels, restaurants, and even music—all stamped with the name and sensibility of a man who built his life around exacting taste and emotional intelligence.
Born in Piacenza on July 11, 1934, Armani’s path to fashion was far from conventional. He studied medicine before a stint in the army sent him to work in a military hospital. But it was in Milan, as a window dresser at department store La Rinascente, that his true calling emerged. From there, he moved on to design menswear for Cerruti in the 1960s and freelanced for several fashion houses before launching his own label with partner Sergio Galeotti in 1975.
Armani was not merely a designer—he was a cultural force. He pioneered a new kind of fashion language: languid, luxurious, and deeply modern. His deconstructed suiting liberated both men and women from stiff, overstructured clothing, ushering in an era of sensual tailoring that embodied the “power soft” aesthetic of the 1980s. His color palette—greige, taupe, midnight, and stone—was as influential as his silhouettes.
Hollywood took note. When Armani dressed Richard Gere in American Gigolo (1980), it wasn’t just a costume—it was a moment that redefined on-screen masculinity. From that point forward, Armani became fashion’s de facto ambassador to the red carpet, dressing stars like Diane Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Cate Blanchett, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, and Jodie Foster, often personally and always impeccably.
But beneath the glamour was a fiercely independent businessman. Armani resisted acquisition overtures from every major luxury group, from LVMH to Gucci, choosing instead to maintain control. His foresight culminated in the creation of the Giorgio Armani Foundation in 2016, securing the brand’s future and his values for generations to come.
Ever meticulous, he approved everything—from campaign imagery to curtain color. He was known to appear unannounced on sets, prompting whispered warnings of “Sta arrivando.” Armani was demanding, but not out of ego; it was an extension of care—for his name, his craft, and his people.
Over the decades, Armani’s impact expanded far beyond fashion. He launched Armani Casa (2000), opened the Armani Hotel inside Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (2010), and left a permanent mark on Milan with the creation of Armani/Silos, his four-story exhibition space opened for the brand’s 40th anniversary in 2015.
He was also an early advocate for reform in the modeling industry, speaking out against unhealthy beauty standards and banning models with a BMI under 18 following the death of a model he had previously worked with. Long before “wellness” was a fashion buzzword, Armani practiced it with integrity.
The accolades followed: the Legion d’Honneur, the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award, Italy’s highest civilian honors, honorary degrees from Politecnico di Milano and Central Saint Martins, and even a star on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style. Yet Armani remained, to the end, a private man—dedicated to his work, and to the principle that style should whisper rather than shout.
He famously said,
“It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else’s way.”
– Giorgio Armani
And thankfully, he never did.
Giorgio Armani’s legacy is measured not only in fabric, fragrance, or real estate—but in a fashion world remade in his image: refined, democratic, deeply human. He didn’t just change how we dress. He changed how we feel when we get dressed.
And in doing so, he became not just the Maestro, but the blueprint.
Eventually deciding to look for a different career path, Armani was hired as a window dresser at a department store in Milan, which would form the beginning of a whirlwind introduction to the fashion industry. He quickly became a seller for the menswear department, then moved to Cerutti, where he designed menswear, in the mid-60’s. His skills were in high demand, and over the next decade he worked as a freelance designer for many high-profile houses, including Allegri, Bagutta, Hilton, Sicons, Gibò, Montedoro, and Tendresse. The international press took notice of his fashion shows, and his friends and collaborators encouraged him to continue developing his own style. In 1975, he was ready to found his own label.
Armani presented his first collections, both men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, in October of that year. His relationship with the fashion industry was innovative. Advancements in technology made it possible to produce luxury clothing in a manufacturing setting under the watchful care of a creative director, and this increased productivity allowed him to reach a global market and quickly expand into new product lines. The empire was underway.
Throughout the 80’s, Armani expanded its international presence with new boutiques across the globe, especially in key markets like Japan and the United States. Meanwhile, the company introduced new lines and licensing agreements, constantly expanding into new territory. Marked by the launch of the now iconic line A/X Armani Exchange in 1991, the 90’s were an explosion of expansion with moves into sportswear, watches, eyeglasses, cosmetics, home, and new accessories collections.
2000, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the brand, saw a flurry of investment activity, including stock sales and the acquisition of new manufacturing capacity intended to increase Armani’s control over the quality and distribution of his products. At the same time, the Guggenheim Museum in New York hosted an exhibition of Armani’s work – a first for a living designer – with an average attendance of 29,000 a week.
Throughout the 2000’s, the designer embarked on a number of investments that would expand on his interests outside the fashion world. Through real estate partnerships, he launched a series of luxury hotels and vacation resorts under his name, for which he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of interior design and style. He also launched a music label through which he shared curated compilations, and moved into the world of sport with investment and design partnerships in soccer and basketball. By the end of the decade, the company had also increased its retail presence to hundreds of shops and boutiques across dozens of countries, with the designer’s net worth reaching close to $10 billion.
Armani matched his staggering financial productivity with innovation in artistry and integrity. He made use of new and unconventional advertising methods, including television spots and massive street ads, as well as a unique magazine. He is perhaps the most essential catalyst for today’s relationship of fashion and film, designing costumes for over 100 films and incorporating this experience into his own designs. He was the first designer to dress stars himself for the red carpet, famously dressing Diane Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer in the early 80’s. In 2006, after a model who had worked with him on past campaigns died from anorexia, he led the charge on reassessing the way the industry affects the health and safety of its models, and was the first to ban models with a BMI under 18.
Giorgio Armani’s impact on the fashion industry is inestimable, and it is impossible to imagine what it would look like today without him. We are thankful for his many contributions to the progress of the industry, but we will remember him most fondly as a brilliant artist and craftsman who dedicated his life to his work. He will be missed.