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If this fall season has been remarkable for the return to the runways of fur, Giorgio Armani’s collection encapsulated one part of the equation that has led to that revival. A long coat worn over a patterned jacquard skirt and silky trousers looked crafted in chinchilla. A loose black biker might have been fisher, a long gray mantle shaved mink, and two later vaguely military topcats—one cut long and silver, one shorter and black—astrakhan. Since 2016, however, like most houses in luxury, Armani has customarily only used shearling, typically a food industry byproduct, for its non-faux furs: the advances made since then in processing it were exemplified here in multiple ways.
That industrial sophistication has enabled designers to meet contemporary ethical convention while servicing a consumer appetite that is rooted in the primitive, and which has been notably resurgent in New York. This morning Armani echoed the set up of his show in that city last October, which had us sitting on semicircle banquettes as if waiting in some luxurious railway station. The collection that rolled through was the journey.
From my berth it was a trip whose scenery was distilled in looks 74 and 75, two long slim dresses embellished with patterns that resembled geological formations observed from high above. Layered over these were sheer tulle mantles dotted with a canopy of sparkling points. Across its entire orbit, this collection felt designed from the highest of perspectives, expansively echoing multiple sceneries in global dress but never closely enough to appear derivative. This was a worldwide survey of style as seen through Armani’s telescope.
That view has long been framed by tailoring. Today the looks were defined by brushstrokes in structure, silhouette and detail that softly blended multiple pan-cultural touchstones. These were shaped in richly patterned materials often cut in earthy or mineral tones alongside what his notes termed “endless nuances of greige.” That impression of a world-spanning wardrobe was jauntily accentuated by the angled brimless caps.
As we stepped out of Armani’s station my fellow passengers, both editors and buyers, were positively buzzing about the scenery that had just passed. What has already happened in menswear seems now to be repeating in womenswear: Giorgio Armani is coming around again.
