This is another way to celebrate your fortieth: Giorgio Armani has just bowed after the show of his second brand Emporio Armani.

It's been 40 years since he founded it.

For the anniversary this year, he is treating himself - and his company - to an exhibition in the in-house museum Armani / Silos.

Giorgio Armani works independently of the time, loose blazers from 40 years of company history hang in the showrooms, then and now can hardly be distinguished.

The eagle logo flashes again and again.

Sportswear, evening dresses, campaign photos with very relaxed-looking people.

Giorgio Armani has long since created his own present.

With his work he is practically at rest in himself.

Jennifer Wiebking

Editor in the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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This is one of the reasons why it is an exception in fashion.

This was particularly evident at the Fashion Week in Milan, which ended on Monday.

It's the first big fashion week in a year and a half, with one live show after the next, with guests who were finally allowed to travel from overseas again and celebrities like Gigi Hadid and Dua Lipa on the catwalk.

Chiara Ferragni in the front row.

And with the corresponding fan clusters in front of the door.

Prospect of life after the pandemic

It's busy and it's loud. With the prospect of life after the pandemic, fashion brands are vying for attention. Where, if not here, would that be more obvious? No region was hit harder in the first wave of the pandemic than Lombardy. Nowhere else have people internalized discipline with mask and distance rules so quickly. With the Green Pass, the digital vaccination certificate, the doors of everyday life are now opening in Italy.

The Italian designers' answer to all of this: they drive what goes on. In any case, a couple of fashion days in Milan seem like Instagram stories in a loop. In the next moment, a bass could pop in from somewhere. Or suddenly a marching band march in, like at Pomellato's party, incidentally for the birthday of the nudo ring, which is just 20 years old. Or colored smoke could rise from the fan curve - on a baseball field on the outskirts of Milan, which Boss and Russell Athletic have equipped on the occasion of their cooperation, with cheerleaders, players, food booths.

In between Gigi Hadid, who dances and wears shorts and cropped sweaters. "Sportswear has become even more important in the pandemic," says Hugo Boss brand director Ingo Wilts after the break on the baseball field. A couple of loose blazers, more jackets than jackets, are also included, but they too point to what Wilts calls “another suit image”. "Comfort is particularly important for younger customers."

OK.

Further.

Prada: In the first live show in cooperation between Miuccia Prada and her new co-designer Raf Simons, you don't see a collection on the catwalk, but models in identical pieces on countless screens again, in a second Prada show that takes place at the same time on Zhongshan Road in Shanghai.

A message: With globalization, we look the same all over the world, like fashion twins.

The second, decisive reason for these micro-skirts with long sashes to worn leather jackets, knitted sweaters with hints of the chest and upper arm belts to tight satin skirts: It's about the body.

To protect it, we have been limiting ourselves for a year and a half.

If everything is better, it should be all the more visible.

This is how many designers in Milan are currently seeing it.

About that in a moment.

Dresses with healing stones

Because the drums are still being played, literally at Etro.

In June, says Veronica Etro backstage, she started working on the collection.

“It should be an explosion of colors.

Everything should bloom. ”In the lockdown, the designer dealt with mindfulness, now she is setting the clothes with healing stones, working in mandala patterns.

For the finale, the dozen drummers get going.