Giorgio Armani hesitated at first when the Brera Art Gallery proposed an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of his signature label, placing his creations among celebrated Italian masterpieces by such luminaries as Raphael and Caravaggio.
But by the time Armani reached the gallery’s final room on a visit aimed at winning him over, the designer, who became one of the most recognizable names in global fashion, was already mapping out which sartorial creations would best interplay with the Brera’s artistic treasures.
“Giorgio Armani, Milano, for love,’’ featuring 129 Armani looks from the 1980s through the present day, opens Wednesday at the Brera Art Gallery, just weeks after the designer’s death on Sept. 4 at the age of 91. The exhibition is one of a series of Milan Fashion Week events planned before his death to highlight Armani’s transformative influence on fashion.
“From the start, Armani showed absolute rigor but also humility not common to great fashion figures,’’ said the gallery's director Angelo Crespi. “He always said that he did not want to enter into close dialogue with great masterpieces, like Raphael, Mantegna, Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca.’’
Instead, the exhibition aims to create a symbiosis with the artworks, with the chosen looks reflecting the mood of each room without interrupting the flow of the museum experience, much the way Armani always intended his apparel to enhance and never overwhelm or exploit the individual.
During the exploratory tour, Armani was particularly moved by Andrea Mantegna’s “Lamentation over the Dead Christ,’' a Brera masterpiece that meditates on death with realism, and he specified that his pieces should not be placed in direct view, said Chiara Rostagno, the Brera’s deputy director.
Behind it, a long blue asymmetrical skirt and bodysuit ensemble worn by Juliette Binoche at Cannes in 2016 reflects the blue in Giovanni Bellini's 1510 portrait “Madonna and Child.”
The show opens with a midnight blue velvet dress featuring a quasi-ecclesiastical embroidered panel with Maltese crosses that play nicely against the frescoed chapel backdrop. A trio of underlit dresses glow on a wall opposite Raphael's "The Marriage of the Virgin,'' their creases and draping in some way reflecting the Renaissance master’s careful geometry.
The famed soft-shouldered suit worn by Richard Gere in “American Gigolo,” arguably the garment that launched Armani to global fame, is set among detached frescoes by Donato Bramante, the slate gray of the suit picking up on the frescoes' architectural details.
The seamless juxtapositions of 1980s looks alongside his most recent garments throughout the exhibition underscore the timelessness of Armani’s fashion.
Armani himself makes a cameo, on a T-shirt in the final room, opposite the Brera's emblematic painting “Il Bacio,” or “The Kiss,” by Francesco Hayez.
“When I walk around, I think he would be super proud,’’ said Anoushka Borghesi, Armani’s global communications director.
Armani has been celebrated with museum exhibitions in the past, but the Brera show is particularly fitting as the museum abuts Armani’s home and historic offices and showroom. Armani had a long relationship with the museum, and the Academy of Fine Arts, housed in the Brera museum complex, bestowed Armani with an honorary title in 1993.
Honoring the designer’s commitment to his work, Armani’s fashion house confirmed a series of events this week that Armani himself had planned to celebrate his 50th anniversary.
They include the announcement of an initiative to support education for children in six Southeast Asian, African and South American countries. The project, in conjunction with the Catholic charity Caritas, is named “Mariu’,’’ an affectionate nickname for Armani’s mother.
In a final farewell, the last Giorgio Armani collection signed by the designer will be shown in the Brera Gallery on Sunday, among looks he personally chose to represent his 50-year legacy. The exhibition remains open until Jan. 11.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
