Giorgio Armani closes his fashion show with a polemical hit. Or rather, more: related to values. According to the Italian designer (pictured), Paris haute couture week is losing depth: “I am a bit perplexed”, he told Corriere della Sera, “because except for a couple of names, the others do not do haute couture, neither in terms of effects nor ideas. And I am a bit astonished because I place myself in a Paris that I remember as being a bit more glamorous. The question is: what do I do”. He has already given himself a partial answer: if the level of the French fashion week remains like this, he could bring haute couture back to the Milanese calendar.
Paris haute couture (that is not there)
What is the difference between haute couture and “ready-to-wear” fashion? Armani explains to Repubblica. “I make a couture that is completely different from ready-to-wear. I dedicate it to a woman who can afford it. Who wants to be dressed in an exclusive way, and therefore have a product that she can’t find in shops, but only in ateliers”.
Here, the problem is that in Paris “I no longer see all this research”. It is from this context that the doubt arises: “I feel uncomfortable and so I ask myself: what do I do, do I stay in Paris next to haute couture that looks like prêt-à-porter or do I go to Milan with couture as well?”, he tells Corriere della Sera. “And then I add: is it haute couture that is less haute couture or prêt-à-porter that has become more luxurious? When I see my clothes and then others photographed…it makes no sense. It’s either this or that”.
The choice
Better Paris or Milan? Armani has not yet made up his mind. But he has doubts. There are economic considerations at stake. In the Ville Lumière “the locations cost a fortune”, he explains to Repubblica, and “there are so many people to move around, the models to devote to one outfit each, the travel, all expenses that have to be justified”. And also cultural stimuli to look for: “I prefer to have cut-throat competition, at least I can compare myself”, he concludes, “like this instead I can’t compare myself to anyone”. Perhaps Milan is better.
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