Giorgio Armani does well with blue. It seems to dominate his most memorable collections of the past few decades. And even if today s spirited shade of cornflower lacked the mysterious intensity of the desert sky at night (his best blue), it didn t let him down, whether it was coloring draped shorts or a ruffled party frock.
That wasn t the whole story. This being Armani, there were many other options: white and gray and every shade of blue, from sky to navy to gunmetal to the vibrant metallic that closed the show. What tied them all together was the collection s fresh, casual attitude. Cropped, hip-slung pants set the tone at the start. A jersey "biker" with matching tee and pleated pants tied in a bow carried it on. That s not to say there weren t hints of ingenuity in the clothing, like the jumpsuit that combined pop-top and pleats in one trompe l oeil package. And even the expected flourish of eccentricity was oddly attractive—PVC printed in a blue tortoiseshell pattern peeked from under a hem.
Blue comes down to sea and sky. Armani managed to evoke both, which made his Emporio collection an appropriate precursor to Spring 2015.
