Giorgio Armani, the maestro of fashion for both men and women, whose look was classical in its simplicity has died aged 91. He first made a splash in 1975 with his “unreconstructed” jacket, which dispensed with lining and shoulder pads and was adopted by suave businessmen from Manhattan to Melbourne.
His collections had a practicality that appealed to a hard-working, prosperous middle class in contrast to the glitter and flamboyance of his competitor Gianni Versace. Armani almost single-handedly established Milan as a serious rival to Paris as the world’s fashion capital. By 2024 he was thought to be worth £10 billion.
He was born 11 July 1934 7.20am Piacenza, Italy, with his mother making all her children’s clothes to such a high standard that “we were the envy of all our classmates”. The cinema was their entertainment and many of his designs were influenced by the classic looks of Hollywood stars such as Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. He worked as a window dresser, became a fashion coordinator, and joined Nino Cerruti’s menswear operation. His US reputation benefitted from the exposure of the film American Gigolo (1980), in which Richard Gere’s modish lothario was clad exclusively in Armani.
‘An intensely private self-confessed loner, who enjoyed travelling and art galleries but was “distracted” by music and could only read books pertaining to his trade, Armani lived a life that was uncluttered to the point of minimalism.’ ‘For all his success, Armani retained a sense of melancholy, a shyness that restrained him from wallowing in his critical and financial success and led him to prefer the company of family and close friends to the fashion beau monde.
He had a New Moon in Cancer (a favourite fashion designer sign) square Jupiter in Libra; with his Sun, Mercury conjunct a 12th house Pluto in Cancer. His Venus in light-hearted Gemini was in a creative square to Neptune. What gave him the inner grit to push forward such a huge enterprise was Mars in Gemini trine Saturn in Aquarius sextile an innovative Uranus in early Taurus. He was certainly disciplined and could be hard-edged when necessary.
His Cancer Moon fittingly was conjunct Sirius hinting at success in business, influential friends, good health. His mother’s influence on his creative talents was obviously critical.
Interesting–no fire signs.
Good catch. And no Earth almost (only the transgenerational Uranus). Again an example of someone without it achieving immense wealth.
By the way, there are all sorts of designers by sign out there, and so as well of the sign opposite Giorgio’s: Carolina Herrera, Kate Spade, Diane Von Fürstenberg, Ann Demeulemeester, Dragana Ognjenović, Raf Simmons…
His midpoints: Moon = Venus/Node…”Association with his mother who was into fashions.”
Mars = Moon/Venus….”Actively following in your mother’s creative designs.”
Sun = Venus/Asc….”Designer for men’s clothing.”
Jupiter = Venus/Asc…”Designer for foreigners.” Venus = Jupiter/Asc….”Creativity creates
wealth.”