How much is Giorgio Armani worth?
| Net Worth: | $8.5 Billion |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Fashion Designer |
| Date of Birth: | July 11, 1934 |
| Country: | Italy |
| Height: | 1.72 m |
About Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani took the world by storm since his early days as a window dresser to now being Italy’s most successful fashion designer with a personal fortune of over $8 billion. The Armani suit with its clean tailored lines became part of American pop culture, that was, after actor Richard Gere wore them in the film American Gigolo in 1980.
Born in northern Italy to a humble family. At the time however Giorgio spent many of his early years in a state of fear, bombings could be heard with his own ears as his family went through World War 2 tight-knit as ever. Armani has talked on this time, about how painful it was for he and his family “we were poor and life was tough” but that “the cinema in Milan was a refuge-a palace of dreams-and the movie stars seemed so glamorous. I fell in love with the idealized beauty of Hollywood stars.”
From an early age Armani became increasingly curious about the human form. He has told the Guardian that he would “make dolls out of mud with a coffee bean hidden inside”. After he finished reading A.J. Cronin’s The Citadel, Giorgio seriously aspired for a career in medicine. In fact, it seems, that he had a mind that could go in almost any direction. He was also enthralled with movie stars and despite the Allied bombing wanted to move and make it in America.
During the 1950s, he stopped his studies at the University of Milan to enter the army to complete his mandatory military service. “I was doing my military service and I had 20 days off on vacation in Milan,” Giorgio told Time magazine in an interview.
After Giorgio completed his military service, he started out assisting the store’s photographer and designing window displays at the Italian version of Macy’s – La Rinascente . Armani was promoted to being a buyer for the store after making a good impression and being industrious with his work. It was in this position that he would gain experience on international fashion markets as he was charged to import goods from India and Japan.
Italian fashion house Nino Cerruti brought Giorgio on board in 1964 to design a men’s line knowing his lack of any formal design training. The line that Armani designed for Nino Cerruti was named the Hitman Label. And it was there that Giorgio learned his love of men’s tailoring and discovered that he himself had an eye for fabrics.
Following his experience as a fashion designer for Nino Cerruti and with the encouragement for his partner Sergio Galeotti, Armani became a freelance designer in 1970. During the early ’70s Giorgio found himself being hired to design lines for as many as ten fashion houses at a time.
In 1973 Giorgio Armani and his partner Sergio Galeotti, formally started the Giorgio Armani line with a runway show at the elite Sala Bianca fashion show in Florence at the Pitti Palace. The runway show featured supple bomber jackets made from leather treated like cloth. The international press went crazy over line that reinvented leather into an everyday fabric.
Having found success with his debut line, Giorgio made plans to revolutionize the traditional mens suite. Taking his inspiration from Neapolitan tailors who crafted their suits from lighter fabrics to fit the warmer Mediterranean climate, Giorgio started using softer fabrics in all his suits.
The classic Armani suit is defined by the lack of padding and inner lining, a gentle sloping shoulder shape and narrowed lapels, paired with moving the center button down to the level of the lower ribs. The overall look is a suit that when worn loose makes short men look taller and tall men even taller.
Armani provided much of the wardrobe for the TV series Miami Vice, an Armani suit jacket when worn by itself, gives the wearer a handsome yet slightly rumpled look.
Armani believed that to be truly successful one needed to have a relationship with Hollywood. He had been following Hollywood all of his life and he wanted to design a future of fashion that would be remembered. Enter, Richard Gere. He looked great, he was tall, he was hansom and was being put together by some of Hollywood’s greatest to become a leading man.
In the 1980 film American Gigolo, Richard Gere exclusively wore Armani suits during the filming for the where his character. Following the release of the film, the Armani suit became the ultimate status symbol for a whole new generation for young men.
Time magazine in 1982 set of the cover a smiling Armani, a honor not given to a fashion designer since Christian Dior in the 1940s. Armani suits became daily on American television via the hit Tv series Miami Vice where actor Don Johnson wore them exclusively, all through the 1980s.
Giorgio Armani was the first fashion designer to go approach celebrities to wear his collections starting with Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley in 1988. Due to his generous lending program during the Academy Awards he gained devotees like Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster.
Armani made headlines with his advertising campaign “Giorgio Armani for Bruce Wayne” that followed the 2008 release of The Dark Knight, where he made-to-measure suits for Christian Bale‘s on-film character Bruce Wayne, forever cementing his place in the Batman mythos.
The 79 year old Giorgio even designed most of the on-stage outfits for musical superstar Lady Gaga for her “Monster Ball Tour” and the international record break Born This Way Ball Your.
Pushed by his sister Rosanna, who in their childhood would apparently raid his closet, he designed his first women’s suit in 1975. He re-designed the traditional suit for women that was an unstructured, loose fit that added a masculine flair. In the 1980s due to Armani’s influence, women around the globe took to the fashion of wearing a broad-shouldered, tapered power suit as the new uniform of a work woman.
Former Vogue editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella said “Style without excessive design. Armani dresses busy women who can’t be occupied with themselves.” Vogue named the four classic must-haves for every woman in 1994 as the Chanel suit, the Hermes Kelly bag, the Manolo Blahnik pump, and the Armani jacket.
With reported annual sales of over $2 billion, making Armani the highest revenue Italian fashion company after Calzedonia Holding, Prada and Luxottica Group. Armani has over 308 stores worldwide. The Armani line offers its traditional fashion pieces, but has expanded into the home goods market and even book publishing.
