‘It wasn’t all Swan Lake,” said Giorgio Armani backstage, as he brought in for a photograph two models – one in a dress shimmering with pastel pink and ice blue, the other with more feathery effects in tulle, and a pale rose planted on their heads.https://www.instagram.com/p/BzbjIGInlJ2/?utm_source=ig_embedThe tinkly Tchaikovsky music – and especially the pastel shades on anything from a tailored suit to a graceful dress – added to the sense of ethereal sweetness that fitted in with the sugary floor tiles at the Paris Petit Palais.https://www.instagram.com/p/BzbgtCGnQv8/?utm_source=ig_embedThe designer, closing the show with an unexpected twirl down the runway, explained the essence of this Armani Privé collection that looked like a shoo-in for red-carpet events.
“The music was something that stirred emotions and that moves me,” continued the designer, who will be 85 in a few days. “Then I wanted to do folklore but in the Armani way, from the heart.”https://www.instagram.com/p/BzbfioPnrBQ/?utm_source=ig_embedThe Giorgio Armani ethic has moved such a long way from his early years, characterised by unisex style and a penchant for beige and grey, that it sometimes feels like a tectonic shift to see the clothes that are coming out now for the Privé collection.
Yet, at the same time, this show was quintessentially Armani, offering a sweet, pale version of classic dress-up day wear, occasionally whimsical, but never, ever vulgar or ridiculous.
