Honey I shrunk Emporio Armani

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jan 13, 2018

Stripped down, though hardly to its essentials, the latest Emporio Armani collection offered a radically reduced silhouette and line, though not always with the happiest of results.
 

Given that he is well into his 80s one has to admire Giorgio Armani for his chutzpah and determination to always move his fashion forward. However, much of this stimulating fall 2018 menswear collection presented in Teatro Armani really did not come off.

One had to admire the opening, a half dozen skiers appearing in faded black and white jumpsuits, ideal for St Moritz or Aspen – as they marched out of a giant reproduction of the Emporio eagle logo.

However, the designer’s big idea of nipping in shoulders did not do justice to Armani’s legendary reputation as one of fashion’s greatest all-time tailors. Instead of the languid elegance one associates with Armani, the tight jackets and truncated pants – not helped by being mainly paired with clunky hiking boot style shoes – felt forced and scrunched up. And the less said the better about a harlequin velour double-breasted suit, suitable for a whiskey drummer in a Midwest 19th-century fair.
 
The collection did contain a number of jewels: a deep gray twinset of double-breasted cardigan and waistcoat that was superb, as was a beautiful sapphire blue velvet redingote. Moreover, few people cut a leather better than Armani, like his very natty sheepskin hiking jackets. Though even here his decision to plaster them with jacquard trees just looked too twee.
 
Armani termed the collection “a decisive, urban spirit, with an emphasis on a new elegance,” but too often it seemed confused. In a word, a noble attempt to break new ground with the Emporio silhouette that did not quite come off. Leaving his audience hungry to see what the Master can produce with his signature line Giorgio Armani on Monday.