The sun shone again in Milan for the final big show of the week, at Giorgo Armani. The designer held three runs of this collection (usually there are two) to accommodate all the editors and customers in town. Outside Via Borgonuovo was busy with people hoping to see famous guests arrive, and around the corner a line snaked around three sides of the Armani Hotel.
Armani called this collection Vibes and showed it against a projected background of cloudy, diffuse waves of color. All his models sported finger wave hairstyles in the style of the late 1920s (and Madonna’s 1990s revival), and sporty looks, often adorned with waves, rendered in approximately five stages, each punctuated by a subtle shift in lighting. The first part focused on an interplay between bronze metallic fabrics and silk gray-blue. As throughout the collection, the looks were often accentuated by straps of two or three strips of leather, cut so that they curved against or next to each other.
Phase two shifted to Armani’s baseline blue, featuring a strapless dress with a grid of woven blue rectangles against a darker knit sheath. This was completed with two wavy bracelets worn mid-forearm and a small crossbody bag, as well as the flat-soled boxing boots that complement every look in this collection. As Armani told the editors afterwards, he has long been presenting eveningwear, whether trousers or skirts, on top of flats: he does not intend to hesitate now.
The blue shifted to accommodate a conversation with navy green in a kimono jacket with billowing buttons. Silk trousers and top (blue again) were foamed with a frothy skirt of sheer wave panels that swept over the waist and broke to the floor at the left hip. The mood darkened with almost black looks that sometimes achieved their undulation simply through the reflection of Armani’s spotlights on their flowing, silky fabrics. Color burst through a vest embroidered with shimmering shapes – maybe shells, maybe planets – in purple and blue. We entered a section that seemed to border on the closing looks from Emporio earlier this week, with layered full skirts and sheathed trousers insinuated with subtly shimmering crystals and worn under handmade harnesses and bustiers. One model wore no fewer than ten bracelets on her right arm.
The final phase brought a wave of dark light pink to the foreground, with pops of color from the section before. Collarless jackets and long tulip skirts were colored and beaded with art deco-esque banks of rolling cloud-shaped colors. At the end, Armani’s final model came out in a long and loosely flowing cloud dress with a crystal-encrusted sporty neckline, from which a sheer scarf was draped to the floor with more reflection points. She zoomed and twirled with Isadora Duncan verve as she walked toward the photographers, a sketch of her appearance projected on the wall behind her. Mr. Armani came out to applaud and waved: it was an atmosphere.
