Giorgio Armani

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani was born in Piacenza in 1934 and began his career at the Milan department store La Rinascente, where he dressed windows and sold menswear after abandoning medical studies and serving in the army. In the mid 1960s he designed menswear for Nino Cerruti while also freelancing for other manufacturers, and in 1975 he founded his own label, presenting a first menswear collection and a women's line. He became known for minimalist, deconstructed jackets and suits that reshaped formal elegance, and his costume work for more than 100 films, notably American Gigolo (1980) and The Untouchables (1987), brought his name to a wider public. He added Emporio Armani and A/X Armani Exchange lines and later moved into cosmetics, home furnishings and hotels. Honors included a CFDA lifetime achievement award for menswear in 1987, the Legion of Honour in 2008, and in 2021 the Knight Grand Cross grade of Italy's Order of Merit. He died in 2025.