Editor’s Review: All in the family for Armani SS27

Fashion

At the latest Giorgio Armani show, designed by creative director of women’s collections Silvana Armani (who is the niece of the late founder) it became clear that the sartorial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in this family. In her second ready-to-wear collection in her new role, Ms Armani proposed the idea that this offering would be a clear progression from where her uncle left things. She even went as far as to title this SS27 collection Evolution.

But like pretty much all things Armani, any shift or metamorphosis will be a slow and steady one. Something understated, hard to spot at first, and easily overlooked by those not intimately familiar with the ways of the fashion house. With that in mind, perhaps the biggest shift came in a fundamental fabric choice. Ms Armani decided that it was high time that the brand embraced a material that is synonymous with comfort, but one that the founder always steered clear of during his reign — cotton. The journeyman material made an appearance on the catwalk as knee-length shorts, trousers, and easy tops, and will no doubt be a hit with fans of the brand.

But as much as the creative director wanted to push this brand forward, it felt much more like a homage to the label’s 1980s heyday, when the movie American Gigolo put Armani on the international map. Between the Rubik’s Cube charm on the show invitation and the gilded, grid-patterned catwalk, it was easy to picture the models in the tuxedo silk dresses, fringed gowns, and sequin-covered separates dancing till dawn at Studio 54.

The collection, which leaned heavily towards after-hours attire – in Armani’s go-to neutral hues of creams, blacks, and gold – was undeniably chic, although some of the shimmering bustier tops looked like they might be a bit confining on the dance floor. Overall, Ms Armani maintained the brand’s most important throughline, that of offering foundational wardrobe staples that will probably outlast most of us.

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