Giorgio Armani’s niece, Silvana Armani, formally steps into the spotlight with her haute couture debut for Armani Privé, signalling a new era for one of fashion’s most enduring houses.
As the Armani Privé finale snaked its way around the intimate chambers of the house’s Rue François 1er residence, a lift shot up and opened its doors to reveal a woman in a black velvet tuxedo coat. She lingered in the doorway, waiting for her cue, before calmly striding through the salons to take her bow. Poised and poker-faced, she was the image of Giorgio Armani : stoic, elegant, nonchalant; a female incarnation not only of the handsome-woman femininity he conceived in the 1980s but of himself, too. The woman was Silvana Armani, the 70-year-old daughter of the founder’s brother Sergio, who spent much of her life working for her uncle and has overseen his haute couture line since its inception.
While Silvana Armani’s influence in the company isn’t new to its teams, her presence felt new to its audience. How special it was to see this house—so impactful in fashion history’s female empowerment—led by a woman. The fact that she also resembles her late uncle (the Armani gene runs strong) only made the torch-passing more poignant. True to Giorgio Armani’s own stance on creative evolution, in her debut as head couturier his niece didn’t roll out the broad-shouldered boardroom silhouettes that are once again inspiring many other designers in the industry. (Just look at the wildly Armani-centric work of men’s designer Soshi Otsuki, who headlined Pitti Uomo this month.)
While Silvana Armani’s influence in the company isn’t new to its teams, her presence felt new to its audience. How special it was to see this house—so impactful in fashion history’s female empowerment—led by a woman.
Anders Christian Madsen
But through her female gaze, there were slight modifications to be found in the family’s approach to dressing women. The haute couture collection took inspiration from jade, rendering fluid dress silhouettes and suiting in the stone’s pale green color throughout the show. That approach was true to her uncle, but Silvana Armani tackled the silhouette with a more purifying hand, stripping things down rather than adding to them, and manifesting a largely evening-focused silhouette that felt pointedly founded in comfort. Take, for instance, all her silky trousers so slouchy they almost evoked skirts, or the purity of the monastic and column-cut dresses that appeared toward the end of the show.
In his old age, Giorgio Armani didn’t feel a need to return to the 1980s suiting that new generations in fashion would repeatedly rediscover and fawn over. He said it wasn’t relevant. But he was also aware that, in his wake, there needed to be something for his successors to embrace: something that would feel like change yet essentially Armani at the same time. While the change was decidedly subtle, on Tuesday evening in Paris Silvana Armani played out that idea with a respectful hand, making the first Armani Privé show after her uncle’s death an elegant affair. The final look featured a previously unseen bridal gown designed by the legend himself: a long-sleeved monastic dress with tonal embroidery, draped with an angelic veil like a walking statue to his memory.
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