The applause began shortly after a closing pastel triptych of slips and separates overlaid with embellishment and heaped with necklaces were walked off the white bricked runway in sheer-shaft, flat sole boots. And it continued for some time. It lasted all through the finale, during which the models added to the clapping of the crowd with more of their own. Once that finale was complete the Italian press, under pressure from their desks to deliver a fresh line on what has been one of the biggest ongoing news stories here for the past few weeks, were the first to rise to their feet, spurred by professional vigilance and personal sentiment. Many of the rest of us followed, eyes locked on the passageway to backstage from which Giorgio Armani had emerged so often to give his bobbing nod, stiff-backed bow, and half-raised wave.
Silvana Armani, Mr. Armani’s niece and womenswear design lead, had declared before the show that she had no intention of taking a bow after what was effectively the final Emporio collection overseen by the man who founded this brand 44 years ago. Mr. Armani is no longer here, but this was still his moment. The applause continued for a minute or two, as more and more of us left our seats and clustered towards backstage. We kept on clapping.
This Sunday night’s Giorgio Armani show, first planned as his 50th anniversary celebration and since his death reconfigured into his runway memorial, will be Mr. Armani’s big arrivederci. However this afternoon’s Emporio Armani show made for a poignant preface. Mr. Armani would have been absolutely appalled that it started 40 minutes late (Prada, in the slot before, seemed in no hurry to stop maximizing the digital marketing value of its front row by starting its show). However he would have been very satisfied with the collection that we eventually saw.
It was entitled Retorni [Returns], and acted as a sequel to last season’s Pantelleria-set vacation collection. It was framed by the idea that these were clothes you wore in that brief moment after returning home from a trip: when you still feel on the move, are happily discombobulated by your travels, and inhabit that transient window through which you see your home turf with fresh eyes. These were clothes to wear before the tan fades, when you still find grains of sand from some distant beach about your person.
Thus the opening greige symphony that leaned into the post-safari tropes of travel wear, all softened the Armani way. Metal-sheened silk separates, subtly complicated knitwear weaves, dangling fringed belt straps, and jackets unbuttoned to flash that fading tan were just a few elements in this chorus. Once it played out, the collection leaned more towards items that seemed touched by the travels just returned from: billowing silk ikat print pants and jackets, check tailoring and blouses, obi stitched necklines and belted corsets. These reminded me of Ashish Gupta’s comments after his show in London this season about how these patterns have moved and evolved across countries and cultures, acting both to connect and differentiate.
Moving into evening you got the sense that Emporio’s freshly returned traveler was nostalgic for the nightlife she’d recently been living. The low cut black dungarees and wide legged lilac parachute pants in some crisply dense nylon fabrication worn with crystal set bandeaus, tank-tops and bras acted as an imagined return ticket. Then that final trio of looks came out and the applause began.
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