.jpg)
The atmosphere suddenly shifted after around 20 minutes of exploring Giorgio Armani’s jaw-dropping new exhibition dedicated to his 20 years of couture. It was just after noon this Monday in Milan: Mr. Armani’s team had spent the weekend fine-tuning the installation of around 150 looks here at Armani/Silos, the four-story former granary he transformed into a museum back in 2015.
Downstairs, that team had seemed purposeful but perfectly at ease: after all, 90% of the work before this exhibition—entitled “Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025, Twenty Years of Haute Couture”—opens tomorrow had been completed. Placed at the center of the Silos’ cavernous atrium was a full-skirted off-the-shoulder gown from fall 2019 that had been worn just last week by Irina Shayk at the opening of the Cannes film festival. Its layered surface of white pinpoints dotted above an inky black nicely reflected the abstract starscape projected against the soaring walls around us.
We moved further into the exhibition, to be faced by a triptych of looks: a long jacket, a crescent shouldered full-length gown, and another off-the-shoulder dress, this one with a dramatically angled hemline. All were cut in cream silk and sequin and positioned against a crescent moon backdrop: an evening theme was dawning upon even this slowest observer. The looks here were drawn from two seasons, fall 2008 and spring 2010: an approach that grouped looks according to affinity rather than chronology would emerge as another theme of this show.
Around a darkened corner was the first, very discreet, allusion to these looks’ lives beyond the Paris runway where Mr. Armani has shown since 2005. A small plaque alongside an eye-popping one-shouldered silver mesh gown with Swarovski floral details at the hem noted it was the very same design worn by Cate Blanchett at the 2007 Oscars. Onwards, upstairs, were sections dedicated to color, tailoring (even in couture, jackets are Mr. Armani’s best-selling garment), influences from Japan and Asia more broadly, and many others.
I wasn’t counting, but I suspect that nearly all of Mr. Armani’s archive of 40 couture collections were presented here: notables amongst many include spring 2011’s Eclat Des Pierres, spring 2014’s Nomade, and fall 2023’s Les Temps du Roses. This exhibition will be the first time Armani’s home Milanese audience has ever had the chance to to see them, at least beyond the images beamed from runways and red carpets.
That shift in atmosphere came just as we approached the incredible green dragon dress that Mr. Armani showed as part of his One Night in Beijing in 2012. Leaning briefly on a balcony, I noticed two staffers on a floor below had taken hold of a mannequin and were moving it hurriedly to a new position. The workers who had calmly been polishing the Silo’s already polished floors just a few moments ago had stepped back into the shadows. And the low murmur of chat that had been rising up from the atrium had stilled.
Then around the corner came a hushed cadre of core Armani crew perhaps 20-strong, at the center of which was Mr. Armani himself. He was here to take one more look at the set-up before an opening private view event at which 800 people were expected. Yet while there was absolutely no way I was going to even attempt to interrupt him while he was in work mode, he did kindly agree to answer a few questions once his final curatorial edit was done. This is what he had to say.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Mr. Armani, you’ve brought together around 150 looks drawn from around 40 collections. So, a very small percentage of your total couture output. How did you go about selecting which looks to include and was it a challenging process?
Editing is never easy. In this case, the process was particularly intense, but also exciting. I put a lot of work and attention into this exhibition. Due to the space I necessarily had to make choices, and I decided to focus on the most visually striking and stylistically expressive creations, which could help me convey my message to the public, making it more evident and more immediate.
The pieces we’re looking at here were mostly only shown in Paris, and only to a very select audience. Now they’re back in your home territory of Milan where everyone can see them. Why is this important?
In my haute couture collections, I express my vision of style and elegance through the art of craftsmanship and savoir-faire: only here am I free to do so without limits. Twenty years of Giorgio Armani Privé have been an extraordinary, liberating journey. Now, I want to share it with a wider audience, inviting them into this dream of mine, a dream of dresses woven from imagination and grace. A very special world that takes on new meaning in this exhibition.
.jpg)
This exhibition coincides with 20 years of Privé. What drove you to launch it in the first place and has it in any way added or enriched your wider design process in ready-to-wear and elsewhere?
I launched Armani Privé to respond to the growing desire among my customers for a more exclusive and personally tailored collection. At the same time I felt the need for a new means of expression. Haute couture allows me to explore a more imaginative and free dimension of my vision of style, complementary to prêt-à-porter, yet distinct from it. For a designer, this offers the incentive of absolute freedom in the cuts, in the choice of materials, embroideries, finishes. Both share the pursuit of a clean, elevated, timeless signature.
The exhibition is organized according to adjacencies in mood and look rather than chronologically or by collection: why is this your chosen way to communicate the breadth and scale of your couture work?
For this exhibition, I chose a thematic approach over a chronological one because, from the outset, my research has been characterised by a strong sense of timelessness. I don’t follow fashions or trends; I have always wanted to create my own language that is both classic and modern and therefore escapes the passage of time. Presenting it in this way, in this unique setting, reveals the essence of my stylistic research to the public.
The “Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025, Twenty Years of Haute Couture” exhibition opens tomorrow and will run through December 28, 2025. Information about ticketing and opening times is available at www.armanisilos.com.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)