The Armani Alphabet: unmistakable codes but always evolving. Silvana Armani redefines them through fabrics, illuminated by shimmering reflections for the evening - the collection’s focus - but also for the day.

There are menswear-inspired jackets, fluid and elongated, allowing the body to move freely and give shape to the clothes. They evoke the 1980s in fleeting flashes, with sharp shoulders and metallic gleams. The palette is ivory, black and gold. Black for strength, depth and rigor; ivory as a luminous counterpoint; gold as energy.

“He was magical, and he would be happy with this collection,” says Silvana, Creative Director of the women’s line. “I thought about fashion that everyone can wear, which is why I used cotton for the first time. My uncle didn’t like it, but I love it, so I used it. And I like the idea of shining by day and by night.”

It is an ongoing dialogue between yesterday and today, through the archive and memories. The black suit with a white shirt is inspired by a photograph from her uncle’s First Communion. The butterfly, an image of metamorphosis, runs through the collection, while accessories are anything but an afterthought: small pouches and clutches, loafers, high-heeled sandals and flat neoprene boots, a play of opposites and occasions, between evening and morning.

Silvana has always worked alongside her uncle Giorgio, and her signature on the collection for next spring and summer acknowledges that continuity while also revealing a distinct personality, capable of giving a new expression to a style that remains unmistakably Armani. Giorgio Armani himself often distilled his idea of elegance. In 1983, when journalist Enzo Biagi asked him what one should avoid doing in order to be elegant, he replied: “You shouldn’t give the impression that you have dressed with too much thought. It’s better to have a casual air, which doesn’t mean looking sloppy.” The anecdote appears in Giorgio secondo Armani. La vita oltre il successo by Roberta Filippini, a veteran fashion journalist. The authorized biography, approved by the family, captures the designer’s poetic and aesthetic vision in his own words.

“From the beginning, I sensed the emergence of a new femininity that demanded a point of balance with men. I felt that the two sexes, in fashion as well, had to meet on equal terms. I made menswear a little more feminine and womenswear a little more masculine, without taking anything away from the sexual identity of either.”

And again: “I could feel women’s stride, their desire for freedom and independence, and at the same time I understood that there was a market, especially in America, that wanted fashion to be less stuffy, a new style that combined elegance with modern ease. And the two impulses, in my view, worked well together. My goal soon became to give the male silhouette a less severe presence and the female silhouette a less formal one, while maintaining elegance, distinction and that ability to stand out that begins in the mind, with desire and self-esteem.”

Looking back at a Fashion Week in which the industry has tried to use creativity to push back against the difficult moment it is facing, we saw collections speaking to different audiences and markets. We also saw brands making an effort to reconnect with their customers by telling their stories, as Massimo Giorgetti, Founder and Creative Director of MSGM, has done.

After the Paoloni Group, which had been a Partner in the brand since its founding in 2009, exited the company, a new chapter began. “I’m starting over with myself,” Giorgetti says as he presents his collection for next summer, invoking a famous 1983 interview by Ida Bartolini for Rai’s Tg2 Reporter with Mario Schifano. Schifano’s star and heart motifs appear as prints on several pieces in the collection, under an agreement with the foundation that manages the Pop Art artist’s estate.

A new sense of awareness and a new chapter for the brand: “There’s no need to rebuild everything. Sometimes it’s enough to remember who we were, without forgetting what we have become.”

— © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED