Giorgio Armani obituary

"Even before he showed his first collection, in 1975, Armani had been challenging ideas about the male suit and overcoat as they had been constructed since the 1790s on a basis of stiff canvas, interlining, padding and special stitching, so as to reshape a man's torso to look as much as possible like a classical statue. He discarded this armature that helped hide imperfections."

"And when he draped a fluid suede jacket on the toned body of Richard Gere in the 1980 movie American Gigolo, he finally knocked the stuffing out of tailoring. It has never quite returned. Armani said of the film's core, man-chooses-what-to-wear sequence: The magical moment, where the shirts are on the bed and Gere throws the ties on the shirt, was so right for the time. It was about his choices, his muscles; it was throwing away the whole story of the way men dress."

"Armani was just as revolutionary when he offered female professionals the same boneless structure as men, at a time when a suit, trousered or skirted, was becoming an almost obligatory uniform for working women. His gentler power dressing was the easiest female working gear since Coco Chanel invented her tweed suit in 1954. He explained: I always tried to eliminate the things that made women appear like a caricature of themselves."

In the 1970s Giorgio Armani anticipated the gym-driven focus on the male physique and an end to constrictive menswear. He rejected traditional suit construction of stiff canvas, interlining, padding and special stitching that reshaped torsos, instead removing the armature that concealed imperfections. A fluid suede jacket on Richard Gere in American Gigolo symbolized the decisive break from heavy tailoring. Armani extended the same boneless structure to women's professional clothing, creating gentler power dressing that simplified working wardrobes. His Milan-based expertise in textiles and manufacturing enabled high-quality production and helped elevate Italian fashion internationally.

Read at www.theguardian.com