Mr Armani, you are celebrating the 40th birthday of your second brand Emporio Armani this year.

How was fashion back then when you started out in 1981?

Jennifer Wiebking

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

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There was designer fashion, and then there was what people in the street wore.

There were also much less well-known designers than there are today, and the big fashion companies had yet to emerge.

Most of the companies were still owned by their founders.

The subject of fashion was culturally much further removed from the population than it is today.

Streetwear had little to do with designer fashion.

What did people typically wear on the street?

It depends on which place it is.

In Italy we have a tradition of dressing well.

So women and men often wore more traditional outfits that might be of high quality, but not necessarily designed with a lot of imagination.

Suit tailoring in particular was similar to that of our parents or even our grandparents' time.

The jackets were constricting and uncomfortable, with padding and inner fabrics.

The materials were heavy.

The youth looked more towards the United States and wore jeans and t-shirts.

That was the time when young people in Italy developed something of a street identity for themselves in terms of outfit and adopted the uniform from loose jackets, jeans and boots.

How did you react to that?

I noticed that young people wanted to dress more informally, closer to the worlds of music and sports.

That's how I came up with the idea for Emporio.

In my Giorgio Armani collection, I had already introduced relaxed yet elegant tailoring, so I thought: why not offer something to the younger generation and take things a little further?

I encountered a lot of resistance.

Some told me this was not something a fashion designer should do, especially not one who was just becoming known for an elegantly sovereign style.

But time has shown me right.

In 1988, seven years after founding your second brand, your Emporio Armani magazine was added.

Why that of all things?

Even if we didn't define the brand as street fashion at the time, I still had a collection in mind that met the demands of the people on the street.

If you will, I've tried to democratize fashion.

That was long before social media, and if I were to start Emporio Armani today, it would no doubt be the way to reach those I wanted to address.

Did magazines have this status back then?

At the time, I had the impression that the conventional communication channels, the press and advertisements, were not strong enough.

Hence this decision.

Since 1984 I had a large poster for Emporio Armani in the center of Milan, on Via Broletto.

That has become a real part of the urban landscape.

In 1988 the Emporio Armani magazine was added.

Nowadays all sorts of brands do it, back then it was experimental and it existed for 18 editions.

It designed a world around the brand.

It was about fashion for women and men.

Was that rare back then?

There were fashion magazines for both sexes, The Face, iD and Blitz from London, but the more conventional titles didn't.

We didn't know such limits.

Why are you launching the magazine again now?

Why a printed booklet instead of a social media account?

I am aware of the importance of social media, and I do not want to ignore this channel.

But I'm also a big fan of print - for one reason: Photos just look great in the large format.

The impression is more fleeting on the mobile phone.

Looking back, how important were the eighties for fashion?

It was a time of change and great optimism.

Many young people who have not lived through this period are now discovering the fashion of the eighties for themselves.

The eighties are now vintage.

They were important to me because it was during that time that I became a global designer.

My style has always been timeless, elegant, which saved me from following fleeting trends too much.

That's why I'm amazed at how consistent my look has remained.

What is your favorite memory of the eighties?

The eighties began for me with the release of "A man for certain hours", the thriller by Paul Schrader.

Back then, I designed the film wardrobe for Richard Gere.

That was the time when I was experimenting with deconstructed suits, when I wanted to see if a new relaxed style could be found.

The film was the first I ever worked on and it became a huge hit.

I was surprised myself how much my style suddenly got worldwide attention.