Armani has been universally credited with both radically changing the rules of contemporary fashion and, by removing excess ornament and translating traditional sportswear looks into business and evening wear, creating a timeless version of modern dress. A wealth of illustrations, including editorial and advertising shots and new, specially commissioned photographs, charts the evolution of Armani's designs from the earliest sketches to their carefully orchestrated presentation as finished work. Celebrated authors from the worlds of fashion, film, art and design analyze the scope of Armani's achievement and his cultural and sociological impact on the ways both women and men dress today. In addition, personal photographs of Armani's houses and travels offer an intimate look at the man behind the fashion legend. Elegant and unprecedented, this lavish volume accompanies a major exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exploring the life and work of the highly influential fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
Harold Koda (3 January 3, 1950) is an American fashion scholar, curator, and the former curator-in-chief of the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The fashion historiography and the curatorial prose are predictably boring...but the photographs, the old ads and editorial layouts! Peter Lindbergh and Armani were more or less made for each other.