Word: armanis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...receptionist remains-now promoted to the sales department-but the capital has grown apace with the headquarters, today located on the first floor of a 17th century palazzo in the heart of Milan. Frescoes cover the walls and ceiling of Armani's office, from which mythological characters gaze impassively at the modern furniture (including a couple of nifty long draftsman's desks designed by Armani), models, staff and assorted items of evolving wardrobe. Armani has positioned paneling and mirrors around the room so that the frescoes can claim his attention only from above. "In Florence, you would look...
...grand master of surreptitious sophistication who is portrayed in the Italian press as brooding, moody, uncommunicative and withdrawn-a Heathcliff with Magic Markers-Armani sets a fast pace and a high level of good humor and good will with his 26 employees. A trim, quick figure of medium height, with cobalt eyes, he is all compacted energy, like a jack just popping from his box, as he shows up for work around 9. He may begin his twelve-hour day by doing sketches, while his staff sorts out a regimen that, typically, has no rigid schedules or fixed appointments. Buyers...
Beginning usually with a sketch and a bolt of fabric, Armani will work out each of the 500 pieces he designs for his collections, most of which he will offer to buyers in a choice of three colors or fabric combinations. Occasionally, he will wrangle with Galeotti over the practicality of a design ("He will insist I've gone too far, that something is just not salable"), and often he sounds out staff members, whom he calls "my family." But all the designs, even his commissioned uniforms for the Italian Air Force, are Armani's. Unlike some...
...Armani has a realist's interest in the work of other designers, and a respect for Saint Laurent that approaches reverence. "He has given so much to the world of fashion, done so much to make women more beautiful," Armani says. "Saint Laurent broke with a certain 'chic' look of the past, which had become redundant, to produce something more youthful, more lively, more modern." Armani is also catholic enough to admire the giddiness of Kenzo, the classicism of Blass, the eccentricity of Karl Lagerfeld and the sidelong inspiration of Kamali...
...respect both the past and the competition, but Armani has little patience with the fussiness and pretension that occur at the higher altitudes of the fashion business. He gave up going to a favorite restaurant because the owner, with Italianate reverence, insisted on calling him maestro, and he treats the fine art of fashion with fitting insouciance. "My ideas may come from unimportant things," he says with a shrug. "From a book, a film, from talking to my staff or from watching how people behave and live. I cannot allow myself the luxury of waiting for 'the moment...