Giorgio Armani: The Night Richard Gere Changed Everything

Giorgio Armani: The Night Richard Gere Changed Everything

Giorgio Armani did not begin his career with a grand fashion dynasty behind him. He began in postwar Italy, after abandoning medicine, completing military service, and finding his way almost accidentally into the windows of Milan's La Rinascente. For years, he worked behind other people's names, learning how men actually dressed, how clothes moved, and where traditional tailoring could be softened without losing its authority. Then came Sergio Galeotti, the young architect who saw something in Armani before the rest of the industry did. Together they built a company that would redefine modern Italian fashion. But the moment that turned Armani from a promising Milanese designer into an international force came in 1980, when Richard Gere walked onto the screen in American Gigolo. The clothes were not decoration. They were character, seduction, status and attitude. And suddenly, the world wanted to dress like Giorgio Armani.

The Early Life of Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani was born on July 11, 1934, in Piacenza, northern Italy. The script's description of his father as a transport truck driver needs correcting. His father, Ugo Armani, worked as an accountant for a transport company, while his mother, Maria Raimondi, was a homemaker. Armani later remembered that his family had limited means but possessed an instinct for elegance. His mother made clothes for her children, and Armani recalled that they could look wealthy even when they were not.

The war left its mark on him. During his childhood, Armani experienced the violence of World War II, including an incident in which an unexploded artillery shell caused severe burns. The experience of growing up during wartime, followed by the family's move to Milan, gave his early life a texture very different from the polished world eventually associated with his name.