The passing of Giorgio Armani on September 4 marked the true end of an era. The title of “King Giorgio” was bestowed upon him shortly after his runway debut in 1975, with a prêt-à-porter collection that would be the first of a long and extraordinary career.

Designer, creator, craftsman, Armani paved the way for made in Italy and for Italian fashion’s global dominance. He also helped define the eclectic aesthetics of the 1980s. The whole world came to know Armani's minimalist style, a minimalism all his own, built on clean design and rigorous silhouettes, at times embracing bold colors, at other times inventing new shades altogether, such as his iconic “greige.”

Within a few short years, Giorgio Armani had become one of the most authoritative names in fashion, commissioned to create costumes for cult films like American Gigolo (1980), and even featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1982, with the now-famous pun: Giorgio’s Gorgeous Style.

Giorgio Armani

In 2015, to mark the 40th anniversary of his first collection, Armani decided to establish an exhibition space that would commemorate the key moments of his career. Thus, Armani/Silos was born, a former grain warehouse from the 1950s, renovated and reimagined not just to bear his name, but to fully embody the brand’s aesthetic: elegance and sobriety, order and geometry. After all, as Armani himself once said: “This is my life. I need to be surrounded by something not sterile, but clean, simple, a foundation to build upon.” Over the past decade, Armani/Silos has hosted numerous prêt-à-porter collections, a legendary permanent exhibition, and many temporary shows dedicated to every form of artistic expression, not only fashion and design, but also art, photography, and architecture. One such exhibition celebrated Tadao Ando, with whom Armani shared a special connection; Ando also designed the Armani/Teatro.

Currently, Armani/Silos presents “Giorgio Armani Privé 2005–2025: Twenty Years of Haute Couture”, an exhibition curated by Giorgio Armani himself. It features a wide selection of garments from his haute couture collections, arranged in a chromatic display that contrasts a dark backdrop with dramatically lit pieces, like stars on a stage.

The exhibition opened in May of this year, while King Giorgio was still hard at work, fine-tuning what would become his final collections. Open until December, the show now feels like the perfect tribute, a way to remember the genius that was Giorgio Armani, and the legacy of an artist-craftsman destined to resonate not only on the runways of future fashion shows or within the walls of Armani/Silos, but throughout the entire world.

Opening image: Giorgio Armani in 1997. By GianAngelo Pistoia - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons