Milan celebrates the 50th anniversary of Giorgio Armani’s iconic fashion house with an exhibition blending haute couture and Renaissance masterpieces. The show opened during Milan Fashion Week, just weeks after Armani’s passing.
More than 120 of Giorgio Armani's creations went on display Wednesday at a prestigious Milan gallery, mixing high fashion with fine art to mark 50 years of the late designer's label.
Red-carpet gowns and classic suits displaying Armani's soft tailoring, neutral tones and exquisite decoration have been placed among masterpieces of Italian art at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
It was one of the final projects of the late designer, who died earlier this month aged 91, organized as part of his label's 50th-anniversary celebrations.
In one room, a Tuareg blue Armani skirt and top worn by actress Juliette Binoche stand in front of Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child, the color picking out the blue in the Renaissance painting.
Elsewhere, a greige suit worn by Richard Gere in the 1980 film American Gigolo—a movie that catapulted both the actor and Armani to the top of their industries—was placed among Donato Bramante's famous frescoes of soldiers.
"Fashion, conceived as a decorative art, enters Brera in a unique event—a dialogue between Giorgio Armani, the museum, and the artistic heritage it safeguards," said Chiara Rostagno, deputy director of the gallery, in the show notes.
Entitled Giorgio Armani: Milano, per amore (for love), the exhibition opened to the public on the second day of Milan Fashion Week, where the designer's last two collections will be shown.
This week was intended as a celebration of 50 years of Armani's multi-million-euro luxury empire, but the final catwalk show Sunday is expected to be a somber tribute.
Works that could resonate
Armani helped put Milan on the fashion map and was particularly linked to the Brera neighborhood.
His apartment overlooked the gallery, and he was an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, which founded the Pinacoteca in 1809 as a resource for its students.
The Pinacoteca came up with the idea of a collaboration last year, and work carried on until right before his death.
The clothes are not arranged in any particular order, chosen rather to reflect their surroundings.
The muted palette of embroidered jackets, shirts, and trousers in one space recalls the marble pillars between the rooms.
Other outfits are more assertive, such as the 1993 poppy-red silk bustier and skirt worn by Katie Holmes, which brings out the pinks in Bernardino Luini's scenes of the Virgin's early life.
"He searched his visual alphabet... for works that could resonate with our environments," Rostagno told reporters.
It was "more about participating in the beauty of the rooms," although "in some cases, he lingered on certain works," she said.
Another highlight is a 1989 jacket and trouser suit in black silk velvet with a yoke that falls at the back, decorated with Maltese crosses arranged as if contemplating the frescoes of the Porro oratory at Mocchirolo.
Armani was wary about putting his designs in such a storied space, according to organizers.
He insisted the outfits not obscure any of the paintings and kept them away from the most emotive works, notably Andrea Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
"He loved this painting but he decided not to put it in" the exhibit, said Rostagno.
By Alice RITCHIE / AFP
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