Giorgio Armani collection

While fashion often claims to value individuality, it’s much more appealing to the dictatorial tendencies of designers to remodel an army of men in their ideal, uniform image. Uniformity is Thom Browne’s unabashed holy grail. Possibly Browne’s most consistent collection of any he’s been responsible for since he launched his own line in 2001. He’s clearly responded very well to the discipline of designing clothing that must be functional. And the discipline has edited the overt whimsy from his signature tailored pieces.

Giorgio Armani 2011

Giorgio Armani collections 2011

Every one of the models Giorgio Armani sent out today was accessorized with a black beret and a pair of glasses (”spectacles” is probably more appropriate to convey their slightly retro style). The combination made the men look like student thinkers, or maybe even revolutionaries. The show notes were, in fact, keen on the idea of a revolution “liberating the Armani man from any trace of the commercialization that has taken over the world of fashion,” but Armani didn’t go on to provide a new uniform for his insurrectionists. Instead, he offered them the trusted house style: fluid, soft, plush-piled jackets and pants. A more radical gesture was stripping them of their shirts, and the waistcoats buttoned over bare skin actually did have a Fabio-on-the-barricades kind of flair, especially in leather. But when Armani showed denim jackets, they were a far cry from the blue-jeans rebels of the sixties. His were shawl-collared, or velvet-lapeled.


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