Death: Modemacher Giorgio Armani died at the age of 91

The Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani is dead. The owner of the billion dollar group of the same name died at the age of 91, as the fashion house announced on social media. He had worked until his last days and had now died in the circle of his loved ones, it said. Armani was one of the most influential fashion designers in the world.

He became known for men’s fashion in minimalist cuts with covered colors. His name has long been one of the classics of women’s fashion. Armani had Hollywood stars shine in noble individual creations, sold in large series in his shops but also perfume and jeans.

Farewell to a “giant”

The fashion designer Donatella Versace expressed her grief about Armani’s death. “The world has lost a giant today. He wrote history and will be remembered forever,” she wrote on Instagram. Valentino Garavani, who is behind the Valentino brand, also wrote on Instagram that he “always considered Armani as a friend and never as a rival”. “I can only bow to his immense talent.”

Ex-Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour told the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”: “The personality and vision of Giorgio Armani were so clear that you immediately recognized his work wherever you found it.” Armani has the power to express himself and understood the elegance better than any other in the fashion industry, the British continued.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke out of politics: “With his elegance, its modesty and his creativity, he helped to fame Italian fashion and inspired the whole world.”

Funeral ceremony in private form

According to its fashion house, the coffin with the body of Armani is to be laid out in Milan from Saturday. At Armanis, the funeral ceremony will take place in private form. The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, announced a mourning day in the city for Monday.

Always based in Milan

Armani was born on July 11, 1934 in Piacenza in the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. After the Second World War, the family moved to Milan, where the group headquarters are still located today. After graduating from high school, he started studying medicine, which he broke off after two years.

In the 1960s, he took the first steps in the world of fashion as a window decorator and buyer for the Italian department store chain La Rinascent. He delivered his first designs in the company of Italy’s old master Nino Cerruti (1930-2022). He did not have a university degree or another finished training in his profession.

Armani made suits looser – and allowed T -shirt

In the 1980s, Armani made a name for himself as the man who reinvented the men’s jacket. He took their stiffness to the suit, made everything softer, flowing, more casual. A second Armani revolution was that the T-shirt could also be worn for a suit.

Armani dressed in numerous Hollywood stars: Richard Gere in “American Gigolo” (German title: “A man for certain hours”), Kevin Costner (“The Unconnecting”), Tom Cruise (“Mission Impossible”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Wolf of Wall Street”). Oscar appearances by Nicole Kidman or Cate Blanchett in Armani are also remembered by many.

Since 1985 alone as head of the company

An important building block for success was in the partnership with his Italian compatriot Sergio Galeotti. Both founded the Giorgio Armani Spa group in 1975. Galeotti takes care of the financial issues until his early death in 1985. Since the death of his partner, Armani has had the reins of the fashion empire alone in his hand.

With an estimated assets of more than eleven billion euros, he made it to the “Forbes” list of the richest people in the world. He never went to the stock exchange with his group. He also rejected all takeover offers. Around the Globus, the Armani Group today includes 8,700 employees, more than 2,000 shops, often in the best, and a dozen factories.

Announced in July comeback

For health reasons, Armani had not been able to take part in the big views in Milan and Paris for the first time in June and July. On his 91st birthday on July 11th, the Italian thanked a large newspaper advertisement in several Italian newspapers for all the good wishes and news. At the same time, he announced his comeback for September. Back then he concluded with the words: “Thank you very much. See you in September.”

But this no longer happened. Last weekend, a portrait with Armanis may have been published in a side dish of the “Financial Times”, in which he looked back in business for five decades.