At 73 years old, he is still busy making people look good. Giorgio Armani is one of the world’s most influential and esteemed fashion designers. For over three decades, the Italian icon has turned out season after season of beautiful clothing, accessories, and fragrance. His collections are hot tickets with the A-list and his creations are red carpet regulars. Devotees love Armani for its unmistakable luxury, clean lines, and lush fabrics. This same vision is translated in Armani’s fragrances, a collection of true classics that are coveted the world over.

“Remain true to yourself and your philosophy,” says Giorgio Armani. 

Born in 1934 into a humble family in Piacenza, a small town near Milan, Giorgio Armani went to the local public school and developed a love for the theater and cinema. After a short stint at the University of Milan medical school, in 1957, he took a job at the Milan department store La Rinascente. He worked briefly as an assistant photographer before accepting a promotion to its style office, where he bought and exhibited quality products from India, Japan, and the U.S., and, in so doing, helped to introduce foreign cultures to the average Italian consumer.

Following his military service, Armani launched his career as a window dresser at a large Milanese department store, called La Rinascente. He later revealed that he developed his classic style during this time, following frequent trips to the UK. “England was virtually the most important centre for inspiration,” he says. “When I was working for La Rinascente we used to travel to London for the influences, to see the shops, to learn. I remember seeing some yellow cardigans in a small boutique and bringing them to La Rinascente and everyone thought I was insane. Yellow cardigans were what the Duke of Windsor was about, they were not something for the average man. The entire idea of such clothing was so outré, so elitist… very, very English.”

In 1964, without any formal training, Armani designed a line of menswear for Nino Cerruti. Encouraged by his partner Sergio Galeotti, Armani left Cerruti and in 1970 became a freelance fashion designer and consultant. He soon made his mark. In 1973-74, at the prestigious Sala Bianca fashion show in Florence, he presented to great acclaim bomber jackets that treated leather as a regular, everyday fabric. This penchant for using materials in unexpected contexts and combinations came to be known as a defining characteristic of his genius. In 1975, Armani and Galeotti started their own company, Giorgio Armani S.p.A., and founded the Armani label. That July, Armani launched a revolution in fashion with his unlined and unconstructed man’s jacket. Completely loose and informal, the blazer offered sensual hints of the body beneath, marking a major departure from, on the one hand, the stuffy suits that straitjacketed men in the 1960s, and, on the other, the sartorial abandon of the hippie generation. The rumpled jacket was an immediate success, and a new breed of tailoring was born. Three months later, he unveiled an unstructured jacket for women. Made with traditional menswear fabrics, it was as simple and soft as the man’s and bore a masculine authority. With this alternative to long, flower-child skirts and classic French tailleurs, Armani joined Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel as an emancipator of women’s fashion.

In the 1980s, the exquisitely tailored Armani “power suit” for men and women came to symbolize an era of international economic boom. With broad padded shoulders and widened lapels, the look was inspired by the glamour of 1940s Hollywood. Paul Schrader’s film American Gigolo (1980) exemplified this trademark combination of power and sensuality with the now-famous scene in which Richard Gere pulls from his closet and dances with an extravagance of shirts, jackets, and ties as he chooses the perfect ensemble. The film secured Armani’s fame with the general public and marked the beginning of a long and fruitful history of collaboration on films, most recently John Singleton’s remake of Shaft (2000). Armani has also created costumes for theater, opera, and dance.

In 1982, Armani became the first fashion designer to appear on the cover of Time magazine since Christian Dior in the 1940s. He was one of the first designers to approach celebrities to wear his designs, beginning with then Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley in 1988. Armani also invited Hollywood stars to wear his designs at the Academy Awards, winning devotees such as Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster. Today Armani extends his talent diversely, dressing Italian and English soccer teams and Alitalia airline flight attendants.

Since 1975, Armani has overseen the launch of Giorgio Armani Junior, Underwear, Swimwear, Accessories and Occhiali. Capitalising on the cachet of his more exclusive label, he opened the first of a series of stores selling his cheaper diffusion lines, Emporio Armani and Armani Jeans, in 1981. In 2000, he added a new make-up range to his output, specially designed by Pat McGrath. Today, the Armani empire comprises some 2,000 emporia world-wide with annual sales of more than $1 billion. His catwalk shows often draw a distinguished crowd when he was forced to show in New York in March 1998, after Paris police closed down his black marquee over Place Saint Sulpice claiming that the set-up was “unsafe”, Robert de Niro, Spike Lee, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Scorsese, Sophia Loren and Wyclef Jean of The Fugees all came to watch.

Nonetheless Armani claims to base his vision on the everyday people in the street, believing that clothes should be made to be worn not just seen and drawing on the skills he learned as a menswear designer to produce contemporary clothes for women. The wide-shouldered power suit that was a trademark in the Eighties has been softened into a more supple, practical silhouette and Armani’s collections these days are elegant and understated (the designer has often expressed a dislike of “important” clothes).

In 2000, Forbes declared Giorgio Armani to be the world’s most preeminent Italian fashion designer, with personal earnings of $135 million in 1999. In 2001, the magazine put him at No.19 (behind the Bvlgari family and ahead of the Pradas) on a list of Fashion’s New Aristocrats. Known for his classically tailored, sleek power suits and clean, high quality fabrics, everyone from the who’s who of Hollywood to the bankers on Wall Street have fallen in love with the Armani brand.

“In this business you can’t have a destination, an arrival point,” says Armani. “Otherwise your competitors will overtake you, or you become complacent.” With over $1.5 billion in revenue and a retail empire that extends to more than 35 countries, Armani remains Chairman, President and CEO of the company he started over thirty years ago. The mere mention of the designer’s name – first or last – and consumers the world over know not only who you are talking about, but also of the luxury product lines for which he has become famous.

Philosophy: Armani once said, “With fashion you have to renew yourself … you’re only as good as your last collection.” For over thirty years, he has managed to stay both current and also classic. Armani has never strayed from his original vision of creating understated and elegant clothing. It is this consistency that has garnered him his loyal following and built up his reputation.

Marketing: Armani was the first designer to begin to make use of celebrity marketing. By locating a press office in Hollywood, he had prime access to all of the industry’s hottest stars. From actors to athletes, Armani took whatever opportunity he could to promote his clothing to an A-list clientele, thus boosting his reputation as a designer of luxurious and elite high fashion attire.

Branding: If you are looking to buy an outfit for a night out, Armani has the clothes for you. If you want to have a nice dinner out on the town, he has the perfect restaurant for you too. And now, if you are looking to stay in a chic hotel, Armani is there for you as well. By carefully crossing over industries and extending his brand to include a vast array of products of similar luxury and quality as his clothes, Armani has managed to reach a wider audience than just his clothes ever could.

Control: “The long and short of it for me is that the entrepreneur is the one who at the end decides yes or no and I like that even though it’s a lot of responsibility.” says Armani. “It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else’s way.” From taking care of even the smallest detail on the runway to refusing to be bought out by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Armani has maintained complete control of his company, allowing him to do things his way.

Responsibility: The larger his company grew, the more Armani believed he had a duty to ensure it was contributing, and not taking away, from a healthier tomorrow for his consumers. By using environmentally friendly materials and supporting larger social issues, Armani has directed his business to be a leader in the fight for a brighter future.

“At this point I think of myself more as an entrepreneur than a designer.” says Armani, reflecting on the success of his career. “This is my life’s work and I’m more passionate about it than ever.”