Giorgio Armani: The pandemic has changed how I communicate fashion

Giorgio Armani thinks the pandemic has changed how he “communicates fashion”.

The 86-year-old fashion designer recently returned for his first fashion show since the pandemic and has realised the lockdown has taught him how to display his shows in different formats.

He told Vogue: “I am not sure if this is the future of fashion, what I know is that what we went through over the past months has been a terrible experience but one that came with a lesson. I think we have learned that we can communicate fashion in a different way. So, for the future I see real shows mixed with digital entertainment for the public who won’t attend the shows, which I hope will be more intimate like they used to be.”

However, the Italian designer hoped the pandemic would make the fashion industry more sustainable but he feels people have forgotten to minimise their waste.

He explained: “The one thing that I would like to change about the system is the overproduction of ‘stuff’; of clothing, of events, of unnecessary things. That really was the main change that I was hoping to see after this pandemic turmoil. But probably, although we all wanted things to change at the beginning, we quickly forgot about those initial good intentions. What I’m seeing now is different and things are almost back to what they were.”

What’s more, Armani has personally learned to stop being a “control freak” in the pandemic as he stopped trying to plan ahead.

He added: “I am a man of habit, but the pandemic has taught me some very important lessons. The main one is that you cannot really plan too much in advance. I don’t mind admitting that I am a control freak, I always needed to plan everything way in advance. But what the pandemic did was to disrupt all of our plans. So, we had to learn to have one look on the long term and another look on the short term, trying to make the best of both. Personally, I have learnt to enjoy things more and to work day by day, not planning too much ahead nor stressing too much. And I have to admit it’s been very healthy for me. I am also committed to staying close to my loved ones as much as possible because you never know what the future will bring.”