Giorgio Armani is obsessed with light this season. His Emporio show sparkled with hard starlight; his signature show shimmered with the translucent glow of the moon on the sea—or the mother-of-pearl lining of a seashell. Armani excels at translating such abstract notions into fabric. Here, there were bias-cut silk jackets that did indeed look like nacre. And the three graces that made an awkwardly stately exit at show s end were so drenched with beads and crystals, they looked newly risen from the ocean.
There is always a very particular dignity in an Armani show. Equally, there are also times when he introduces a design flourish that compromises that dignity. The unique touch in today s show was the slit that bifurcated pant legs—only in this case, it wasn t a compromise moment. Instead, it had the vaguely Far Eastern flair that characterizes so much of Armani s work, especially when the pants were laid under a skirt and jacket whose shoulders extended into pagoda points. Perfectly serene.
In that spirit, Armani took the lapels and buttons off his jackets, using a single toggle or an invisible hook-and-eye as an alternative closing. You can feel him continually paring away, reducing to some fundamental element. As long as that element is water, he ll do just fine.
