Armarni Fashion Show in Dubai Airport

Giorgio Armani promises 'greenish' 1 Night Only in Dubai

The style giant tells usa in an sectional interview ahead of his Dubai visit what to wait from the event celebrating the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Armani Hotel at Burj Khalifa.

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Photo courtesy of Giorgio Armani

Published: Saturday 23 Oct 2021, 4:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 23 Oct 2021, vi:07 PM

Giorgio Armani is arriving in the City of Golden. On Tuesday, October 26, the legendary designer will stage his One Night Only event at the Armani Hotel Dubai, kickstarting with an sectional runway.

The fashion giant is happy to return to Dubai after 11 years. "The Dubai event has an boggling meaning for me," Mr. Armani says from Milan, his bounding main-blue optics shining brightly.

Information technology will exist a memorable night, a tribute to "a truly international city."

The One Night Only Dubai event was initially scheduled for last November, and then cancelled due to Covid-19.

The grand event celebrates the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Armani Hotel Dubai inside the soaring Burj Khalifa, the world'due south tallest building.

The iconic fashion designer, 87, has dominated the fashion business for decades, and his style is with us every mean solar day, as recognisable every bit a visual artist'due south brush-strokes.

As a real king of style, Armani has touched every segment of fashion — be it haute couture, runway, movie house, theatre, ready to vesture, accessories, eyewear, watches, jewellery, interior design at Armani Casa, Armani/Libri or bookstores. Then, again, at that place are hotels, restaurants, cafés, scents, cosmetics (Armani Dazzler), chocolates (Armani/Dolci), and more than, continuously revealing his signature style, minimalism that embodies a deep sophistication.

You are a taste-maker and a rule-breaker; you revolutionised people's way of dressing by exploring the possibilities of shapes that have freed them from constricting tailoring. Fifty-fifty your most recent creations have clean lines and fluid silhouettes.

When I start decided to explore deconstructing tailoring, it was a spontaneous impulse born out of logic. The jackets that we were wearing at the time – the late '70s – were non essentially different from those our fathers or grandfathers had worn. I wondered why tailoring had stayed fundamentally unchanged in a contemporary earth that evolved.

Armani with models at his Spring/Summer 2022 show (Photograph: SGP)

Using new manufacturing techniques and modern fabrics that had become available, which managed to exist of a lighter weight yet stiff, I set about creating a new type of jacket. It had fewer pads, less lining and was designed to look smart but exist comfy. What started every bit an experiment for men extended to my designs for women. I meet now that this was, above all, a commitment to delivering condolement. If you are comfortable in your clothes, you experience confident. It was also an exercise in innovation – in challenging myself to claiming convention. These impulses accept persisted throughout my career, and all my work is notwithstanding motivated by instinct, backed up past logic.

What is the undercover to your creative longevity? How does your signature mode keep evolving?

These are questions I enquire myself often. I believe that my staying power is probably downward to the fact that I have never pursued trends. Instead, I aim to create pieces that accept timeless style: They can be worn for many years and have little to exercise with the conventional notion of fashion, with its preoccupation with what is "of the moment."

As I looked for mode rather than way, I have tapped into a customer base of operations that recognises my artful and values it. In improver, in that location is another aspect to Armani that ensures it remains pop: Clothes must be wearable and brand the wearer wait skilful. Way sometimes forgets this. If a garment remains only for the catwalk or magazine editorials but is non purchased and worn in the existent world, it is not serving its purpose every bit a piece of authentic fashion pattern. It is the role of the fashion designer to serve the customer. Always.

You described yourself as an optimistic realist. The pandemic posed numerous challenges. Merely the almost creative brands turned out to be resilient. What are the virtually positive, perhaps fifty-fifty unexpected outcomes for fashion arising from this period in history?

I would dearest to say that I believe recent events will alter us for the better, just in my experience, each time, there is a word that the world has inverse, but the reality is that we tend to slip back into old habits. It is, perhaps, but human nature to do and so. However, some discoveries have been fabricated over the past year and a one-half. I sincerely hope we learn from them. The pollution reduction is a point nosotros demand to continue in mind when this emergency is over.

Covid-19 has made me re-examine the manner we as an industry do things. In Feb last year, the decision I made to concord my women'due south show behind closed doors and live-stream was, of course, provoked past the Covid-nineteen emergency, but information technology was an interesting do. It did demonstrate that at that place is more than one way to exercise things effectively.

Ane change I believe will happen is that brands will retrieve carefully almost how many shows they stage. I am likewise committed to putting clothes in-store when they match the season exterior — no more than winter overcoats in July or linen dresses in Jan. Let's get back in step with nature. This thinking will help u.s.a. reduce our environmental impact and put fashion on a footing more in tune with the customer's needs.

Are there new, unexpected stylistic elements that grew out of the pandemic, something to treasure for futurity way developments? Was information technology a artistic time?

Particularly, it was a creative time. What has been fascinating is that I take become enlightened of a genuine want to reconnect with beauty. We have been starved of this, and now we crave information technology.

From a fashion bespeak of view, it ways that while the athleisure aesthetic may have go further embedded in our lifestyles, a counterpoint to this has emerged – a wish to clothes upward for the return to socializing.

I sensed this even before stores were reopening, so I have been exploring the more dressy end of my drove exactly every bit I pursued the more coincidental part. However, many things remain unchanged in my thinking too, which was too a type of revelation. The pandemic gave me cause to pause and ask myself many questions about my beliefs.

And I am proud to say, many held firm: For instance, my confidence that clothes should be article of clothing and relatable for existent people; and the importance of quality, in production and design, and so that pieces take longevity, non merely from the bespeak of view of structure, but also about their aesthetic relevance. The pandemic has reinforced many of my ideas, even though it has challenged others.

Forty years ago, you created Emporio Armani, your prepare-to-wear collections dedicated to immature adults, which was way ahead of its fourth dimension. Does success in fashion mean beingness alee of the times?

I believe that it derives from being in tune with the times. When I started Emporio Armani in 1981, I felt the need to address a new type of customer – young in spirit, metropolitan, experimental. It was prompted past observing changes in the culture and seeing a desire among a new demographic for something they could wearable and rally around.

Since then, Emporio Armani has remained true to that initial vision. As I have evolved creatively, I have developed Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani in parallel, reflecting the civilisation's subtle changes. But I always stayed truthful to my conviction that there is a place for the energetic aesthetic of Emporio to run aslope the more elegant, restrained universe of Giorgio Armani.

An exhibition in Milan celebrates the 40th anniversary of Emporio Armani; y'all have personally curated the show, The Manner We Are. Held at your exhibition space Armani Silos, it runs until side by side Feb. Information technology supports Salve the Children projects aiming at combating early school drop-out. Is listening to society and its social issues central for the fashion of today and tomorrow?

I don't know if information technology is crucial for fashion. Personally, living as a member of club, I practise observe it. And whenever possible, I endeavor to involve myself in initiatives that benefit people. This philosophy has led me to collaborate with UNICEF, WaterAid and H2o.org on the Acqua for Life project to bring clean drinking water to communities deprived of this essential life-giving element.

Or I am thinking about the Product (RED) project launched by Bono and Bobby Shriver to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. It is the responsibleness of every citizen to help others. That is why I donated to the fight against the pandemic; I manufactured protective wearable for those engaged in tackling the emergency, and why I am at present supporting Salve the Children.

For you lot to "exist in the moment" has always been pivotal. Does it mean being in tune with the historical, social, and human being reality that surrounds you? How practise you reconcile that with creating timeless fashion?

This may sound like a paradox. On the one hand, being attuned to the moment is critical to understanding how to create clothing and accessories that people volition want to wear. On the other, I aspire to a timeless artful. I suppose the reality is that my antennae selection upward shifts in the culture, and my response is always filtered through a highly personal perspective.

From the Giorgio Armani Spring Summertime 2022 drove (Photo/SGP)

I will ever express my ideas in a way that champions elegance and simplicity, condolement, composure, and an essential sense of style. That is where the timelessness originates. Look at the nascence of Emporio Armani equally an instance of this: An idea born of a specific fourth dimension and identify that gave rise to something much longer-lasting through a timeless interpretation.

You started the Ane Night Only tradition in London in 2006, followed by Tokyo one yr afterward, and so Beijing in 2012. Your Ane Night Only series touched Rome and New York in 2013 and Paris in 2014. Tuesday's upshot will too celebrate the 10th anniversary, now 11 years, of the beautiful, classy Armani Hotel inside the Burj Khalifa. Can you tell usa something almost the evening?

The I Nighttime Only serial of events is my way of giving a special presentation to a item city and country, and since the first, in 2006, I accept staged them effectually the globe. These projects typically involve a fashion prove, a party, and live music. The result in Dubai has a special significant to me. Non only is it designed to bring a gustation of Armani to the Middle East, but also it celebrates my debut hotel in the Burj Khalifa. That was the fulfillment of a long-held ambition of mine. Of form, I wanted to explore how an Armani hotel might look and also wished to define Armani hospitality and service. I wanted to create a hotel that felt similar an accurate home away from domicile, with the type of welcome we Italians are famous for.

Amal Terrace at Armani Hotel Dubai (Photo: Giorgio Armani)

I envisioned a place that would care for guests every bit well as if they were my firm guests. In the past decade, the Armani Hotel Dubai has exceeded my expectations in this respect, and so now I am looking forward to proudly celebrating its continuing success. Last but non least, the Dubai event minimizes the impact on the environs in compliance with the ISO 20121 standard. We volition exist adopting measures in this direction, such as using hybrid or electrical cars, avoiding single-use plastic materials and food waste material. Our suppliers, as well, will be required to comply with specific social and environmental clauses. Additionally, we have committed to support nature-based solutions projects to beginning the event-related residuum GHG emissions.

Are Dubai and the Middle East becoming good players in the fashion world?

Dubai is now a truly international city. It has attracted many of the world's famous and established manner brands, eager to bring their collections to that part of the globe. Inevitably, this sort of development, coupled with the evident dynamism of Dubai and the region in general, means that fashion will become ever-increasingly of import there, a cultural miracle.

What is the function of the Eye Eastern market for the iconic Giorgio Armani brand? What's new in terms of stores and projects?

The whole world is my marketplace. My concern is non geographical or cultural but more focused on a shared sensibility. My feel is my artful based on an elegant and essential approach to timeless design. Information technology has an appeal to a specific type of customer, and I find these people worldwide. The Middle East is no exception. And I am pleased to say that I have a growing number of customers in the Middle East, particularly where Giorgio Armani is concerned. Interestingly, my Armani/Privé couture collection also appears to take many fans in the region, people looking for something truly unique and different.

Have elements of Center Eastern fine art or music always been a source of inspiration for your manner?

Indeed, other cultures often inspire me. In detail, I find inspiration in places I accept visited. The East, in general, has played a large part in formulating my blueprint aesthetic. I am interested in the colours and fabrics associated with the Middle East, particularly the geometry of its art, both ancient and modern. Music from the region is besides something appealing to me, particularly as it becomes mixed into the sounds of North Africa. Armani may be symbolic of Milanese style, nonetheless if you look carefully, you will see that I similar to create something distinctive by combining the creative spirit of my homeland with other influences. Information technology is all put through my creative lens, so the result is highly personal. You lot could say information technology is more Armani than purely Italian.

Last year, under strict lockdown, yous told us about a book you loved, the offset y'all read equally a kid, an run a risk book past Emilio Salgari published in 1900 entitled The Tigers of Mompracem. You brash united states of america to immerse ourselves in those wonderful exotic stories in the painful, lamentable days of the pandemic. What advice practice you take for us at present?

Last twelvemonth, I did indeed resort to a form of escapism, using the imagination to send me because traveling was an impossibility. Now, equally we go released from the grip of the pandemic, I believe it is time to immerse ourselves in the sights and sounds of the real earth. Go to galleries and exhibitions!

See the works of the masters and those who have only graduated from fine art school. Do not shut yourself off from what is out in that location. Do non pre-judge it. Explore and digest and make upward your mind near what you similar. That is the beautiful thing about freedom. After the past year and a half, we accept all realised that freedom is the truthful luxury.

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