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UPON ARRIVAL AT GIORGIO ARMANI’S SPRING 2024 presentation, guests were greeted by an enormous pencil at the end of the runway. Several metres high, angled downwards, coated in black and embossed with ‘GIORGIO ARMANI’ text, the giant writing apparatus was impossible to miss inside the otherwise stark-white show space at Via Borgonuovo.
Since 1975, a pencil has been the starting point of each Giorgio Armani collection. Each season, when the designer puts lead to paper, a new chapter begins. It has been used to narrate a story of style, through an ongoing process of writing and rewriting; designing and revising. Literally entitled ‘Weaving a Story,’ Armani’s latest offering introduces a brand new plot point into the brand’s narrative.
In the show notes, Armani reflects: “Giorgio Armani’s story always stems from the same unwavering urgency: to clothe the present with a vibrant, authentic sign fashioned from dignity and elegance.”
This collection takes the house codes with which we’ve become familiar, threading them through a new storyline. Here, suiting falls off the body; soft and lengthened, it is fluid with a distinctly summery feel. Silk shirts are worn with collarless jackets and quiet, printed vests. Meanwhile, twinsets, cargo trousers and trench coats remind you this is still a tale of dapper city summer style — not one of the beach.
Still, nods to Arman’s rich history were present. References to the label’s first-ever menswear collection could be found throughout, in the raffia weave prints and the familiar palette of demure neutrals, grey, sand, and navy. No, this is merely a new chapter: a simultaneous rewriting and reiteration of the House codes.
One, written with a rather large pencil, apparently.
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